New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters says the push for early voting is part of a "fear campaign", and he is urging people to vote on Election Day.
He also rallied against voting day rules and called the restrictions "a senseless farce".
His comments come after both Labour leader Jacinda Ardern and National's Judith Collins voted early and encouraged others to also do so.
"For the next two weeks, our job is to make sure that everybody knows that the polls are open, that they can get down and cast their vote," Ardern said at an early voting encouragement event last week.
But speaking to media this afternoon, Peters was encouraging the exact opposite.
"I would advise everyone to vote on Election Day because there are clangers being dropped every day which will influence the way the election will be run," he said.
As well as Ardern, the Electoral Commission has been encouraging people to vote early as well.
A main argument is if people vote early, there won't be an Election Day rush and it would be easier for people to social distance.
Peters rubbished that argument today.
"This is just a fear campaign in that context. It's not consistent."
He would not say if he was saying Ardern was promoting this "fear campaign", but it was very clearly a veiled reference.
"What I was amazed by is every other leader has rushed out to vote in the first two days," Peters said.
He added that voters are learning a lot about each party on the campaign trail and, therefore, they should wait until they have all the information they need before they vote.
And that should be done on October 17, he said.
"It's a reflection of the old English saying that only a fool tests the water with both feet – know all the facts first."
According to data from the Electoral Commission, the first three days of early voting are the highest on record.
Some 93,420 people cast their vote on Saturday, compared with 39,570 votes cast on the first day of advance voting in the 2017 election and 12,031 votes on the first day in 2014.
Peters also took a swipe at the Election Day rules, which don't allow political campaigning, advertising or coverage until 6pm, when the polls close.
"It doesn't make any sense … why carry on a senseless farce?"
He argued that those rules are not in place for people who vote early – so why should they be on Election Day.
