Enrolments closed, advance voting begins for 2026 Election

Enrolments have closed and voting in the general election begins today, with party leaders among those casting their ballot on day one.Candidates were calling for last-minute enrolments on Sunday, while the Electoral Commission acknowledged the Government's changes preventing enrolment right up until voting day would impact numbers.As of Friday - with two days remaining to enrol - 92.4 percent of those eligible had done so. In the 2023 election 94.7 percent of eligible voters enrolled.Labour leader Chris Hipkins said the Government was to blame if the 2023 enrolment figure was not reached."If we do not have at least enrolment equivalent to what we had at the last election, that will be an indictment on this Government, who have deliberately tried to disenfranchise people, particularly younger New Zealanders, who are less likely to vote for them," he said.The Greens' co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said the Government knew that stopping people from enrolling to vote in the two weeks leading up to election day would disproportionately affect young people, renters, Māori, Pasifika, and migrant communities."These are structural barriers and it doesn't have to be this way. No politician and no government should ever make it harder for anybody to engage in our democracy."However, National leader Christopher Luxon and ACT leader David Seymour disagreed, saying enrolling was simple."You've seen the Electoral Commission bombard everybody with advertising. I think they've had almost a doubling of advertising around voter turnout and voter enrolment. It's pretty simple and easy to do," Luxon said.Seymour added it was people's duty to enrol."If you take all the benefits of a free and democratic society, but you're not prepared to perform a task simpler than ordering a pizza on Uber Eats to be part of that society, I think that is dropkick behaviour," he said.Seymour said low enrolment rates would be an indictment on people who choose not to enrol, not the Government, which had simply set a basic expectation.ACT and Labour respond to National's 100-day planNational on Sunday released its 100-day plan, setting out the first actions it would take if re-elected.As a prospective coalition partner, Seymour said he would not get into pre-negotiations and detail what ACT would and would not agree to."There are some things that will go ahead, others that won't. Just like the last three years," he said."What's clear is that we can work constructively together, and having the ACT Party there to curb some of the National Party's worst instincts, while also promoting positive, practical solutions to New Zealanders' problems, is a good thing."Meanwhile, Hipkins dismissed the plan as a reheat of previous announcements.Talk of boosting bipartisanship during leaders' debates culminated in a handshake between Hipkins and Luxon at one point, with the pair agreeing to sit down together within the first 100 days of the next term and hash out what big things they could work together on.RNZ asked Hipkins whether there was any part of National's 100-day plan he could get on board with.He said National had shown no interest in collaborating on things that matter."They've shunned every overture from the Opposition in the last three years to work constructively together on big issues. I think that's unlikely to change if they continue to be the Government."Calvin Samuel/RNZHipkins doubts Opportunity's Future Generations CommissionerOpportunity leader Qiulae Wong on Sunday announced her party would establish a Future Generations Commissioner to hold governments to account for the long-term impacts of their policies if elected.Wong said it would stop short-term thinking and guide development of long-term national goals.Hipkins said he would be open to having a conversation about it, but any commission must be more than "just talk".He was sceptical of those sorts of organisations - pointing to the Productivity Commission and Families Commission - saying they came up with good ideas, but those could not go anywhere without political support."We have a history of setting up sort of think tanks, advocacy groups that don't really affect positive, meaningful change."Fundamentally, democracy is a contest of ideas. This is what we want people voting on. If you want us to tackle the cost of living, if you want us to tackle healthcare, get people back to work and create a future that New Zealanders can be proud of and that our kids want to be part of, you need to vote for that."