WELLINGTON, Oct 6 (Reuters) – New Zealand’s ruling National Party has fallen to 25.9% support, its weakest result since the 2020 election, while the opposition Greens climbed to 14.8%, an RNZ-Reid Research poll showed on Tuesday, adding pressure on Prime Minister Christopher Luxon a month before the general election.
Labour also slipped to 30.8%, while the smaller Opportunity Party polled 5.5%, just above the threshold needed to enter parliament without winning an electorate seat.
• If the poll results are repeated on the November 7 election day, the result would leave neither Luxon’s National-led bloc nor a Labour-Greens-Te Pati Maori grouping with a majority in the 120-seat parliament, potentially giving Opportunity a pivotal role in coalition talks.
• Luxon has previously said that his National Party was unlikely to work with Opportunity because of its tax policies.
• New Zealand’s electoral system favours coalitions, with the result still too close to call. The poll by 1News Verian released last week suggested that Labour, the Greens, Te Pati Maori and the Opportunity Party could govern in a left-leaning coalition with 65 seats, against 59 for National, ACT and NZ First.
• The online poll of 1,000 eligible voters was conducted from September 24 to October 1 and had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
(Reporting by Lucy Craymer; Editing by Mark Porter)
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