Christopher Luxon has claimed it could've taken up to five weeks to count the vote if his Government had not changed enrolment rules.
By Russell Palmer of RNZ
He says although he has spoken to the leaders of ACT, NZ First and the Opportunity Party he will not hold negotiations until after the final count - despite a constitutional law expert saying there's no need to wait.
The National leader also says suggestions the party is becoming more conservative are "rubbish", and New Zealanders should trust him after he ruled out Opportunity because they would not be happy to hold another election.
With less than two weeks before the final results, Luxon appeared on Morning Report, which pressed him on whether he was still frustrated with the length of time taken.
Even after electoral changes removed the ability to enrol and vote on the same day, and pushed back enrolments to before the start of advance voting, the final result is still expected to take three weeks in total - the same as at the last election.
It was the last caucus for Nicola Willis, Chris Bishop and Paul Goldsmith. (Source: 1News)
He said it was important for democracy that the Electoral Commission was independent, but "I do struggle to understand why it takes so long to count".
"I've watched US midterm elections with tens of millions of people voting in states across the US and even in close races like Mississippi, you get a result turned around much quicker, so I think that's a legitimate question that we need to ask," he said.
"The reality is: who knows, it could take them four or five weeks if we continued to see people saying, 'Look, I won't bother enrolling, I'll just do it on the day when I go cast my vote.'"
He said it was "very challenging, very overwhelming" for the commission to carry out the "four component parts" of getting people enrolled, then "run the actual election day and the vote, then do the count, and... all those things at the same time".
ACT's former chief of staff Andrew Ketels said the right bloc would be "very confident that they will be able to govern and form the next government". (Source: Breakfast)
RNZ has sought comment from the Electoral Commission.
Constitutional law expert Graeme Edgeler told RNZ last week there was nothing preventing negotiations starting before the final count.
Luxon said he had spoken to party leaders David Seymour, Winston Peters and Qiulae Wong, but with nearly 400,000 special votes unaccounted for formal negotiations would have to wait because "we really do need to respect our democracy and respect every vote that's been cast".
Asked why voters should trust him if he was going back on his word - Luxon had consistently ruled out working with Opportunity before election day - he said New Zealanders would not want to go back to the polls.
"We went through this last week. We can go through it again another week," he said.
On provisional results, there’ll be 131 seats due to overhangs from both sides of the political spectrum. (Source: 1News)
"I haven't spoken to you in the last week," interviewer Ingrid Hipkiss responded.
"You want to know, so let me take you through it again, so look - on current numbers it's unlikely we actually need them to form a Government, as I've said ad nauseam... if the specials come back, and if for example there's a hung Parliament... Kiwis wouldn't thank us for going back to the polls.
"One of my takeaways from the election campaign, and actually even you saw it in the debates, was that Kiwis want a lot more cross-party collaboration... it's important that I find areas of common ground with all parties, if possible."
Asked if his rule-out position had changed, he said the idea the current coalition parties - would need Opportunity was "hypothetical", and pointed to National having worked with Labour over modern slavery laws and a social media ban.
"All political leaders should try and put politics aside and find the common ground," he said.
Willis, Bishop, Goldsmith and Brownlee are among National's senior MPs facing the exit, leaving Luxon mourning the loss of political heavyweights while welcoming a new generation into the caucus. (Source: 1News)
Luxon - who through the campaign insisted Nicola Willis would be finance minister - maintained a National MP holding that role was non-negotiable.
"Yes, I've talked to that before," he said.
Hipkiss asked if he had "discussed that further with David Seymour", who last week said it was "no longer tenable" for National to demand it.
"Look, to be honest Ingrid, you and I have spoken about this in the last week and we can talk about it again for this week, I'm a bit more focused on APEC [Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation] and some other big things going down," he said.
Hipkiss: "As opposed to forming the next Government?"
Luxon: "Well, I am forming the next Government. I've just told you the process, which is that we're waiting for the votes to be counted, and I think if you're in my position, you'd understand that that's the right position to be in."
Luxon will be attending APEC in China on Wednesday and Thursday this week.
Simeon Brown says his party is in a good position to form the next government, but will be losing some senior MPs. (Source: Q and A)
He said of departing Speaker Gerry Brownlee's criticisms that National's campaign had been too negative that every party had campaigned both on positive policies and plans as well as "highlighting the contrast and the risk of the alternative".
Departing Banks Peninsula MP Vanessa Weenink had also said she would not miss abuse from the public with some saying they "hate" National - that the party had become too conservative and the Treaty Principles Bill had hurt the country.
Luxon said Weenink had been in a "tough seat" that was historically a Labour seat, and the idea there were fewer liberals - with the departures of the likes of Willis and Chris Bishop - was "just absolute rubbish".
"You might have levelled that claim in 2020, but we had 20-plus new members come in in '23 that were from lots of diverse backgrounds. We've got another seven great new MPs that have come in this time as well from various backgrounds.
"So, yeah, the National Party is always, the genius of it, is that it balances urban and rural, balances liberal and conservative, balances tradition and aspiration, and the thing that unites us is our values."
The morning's headlines in 90 seconds including how to prepare for a super El Niño, and how a couple got stuck at the top of a ferris wheel. (Source: 1News)
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