On the last day of the campaign, Bill English told reporters he would try to form a government even if Labour and the Greens get more support than National on Saturday night.
He says he'll act on the presumption that the single party with the highest vote should form the Government, and he would set about doing that.
"What's happened in the past in New Zealand is that it is the party with the highest vote has been the one that's formed the government," he said.
He acknowledged that other parties were free to have a go at it as well.
On current polling, neither National nor a Labour/Greens alliance will have enough seats in parliament to form a government without bringing Winston Peters' NZ First into a coalition.