Expect to know it all at 11.30pm

By REBECCA WALSH and LOUISA CLEAVE

Today more than 2.6 million New Zealanders have the chance to say who they want to govern the country.

School halls, libraries, courts and community centres, which have been temporarily converted into 3243 polling places, will be open to voters from 9am to 7pm.

There should be no billboards, political hoardings or bumper stickers in sight because the Electoral Act prohibits advertising, or anything to promote a candidate or political party, on election day. This prevents the Weekend Herald from carrying any campaign or party political content.

But the law cannot control the weather and the MetService is predicting rain for some regions. People in eastern parts of the North Island from Wairarapa up to Gisborne, the Coromandel Peninsula and Northland can expect some showers.

Auckland city's skies should be mostly fine, with some cloud.

South Islanders can look forward to a mostly fine day.

Voters may not need an umbrella, but those who are registered should remember their Easy Vote card, which is expected to speed up the process by making it easier to find their names on the electoral roll. People who enrolled late may have a letter from the chief electoral officer instead.

Anyone not on the electoral roll can cast a special vote by going to a polling place and asking to cast a special declaration vote.

The best time to vote is between 11am and 5pm because nearly a third of voters go to their polling booths between 9am and 11am. Also, voting late in the day might involve queuing because polling centres can get busy at the end of the day.

Under MMP each person gets two votes - one for a party (party vote) and one for a candidate standing in their electorate (electorate vote).

Vote counting will begin at 7pm. Advance votes, those cast yesterday or earlier, should be known by 8.30pm. The Electoral Office expects to have the results of half the polling places by 10pm, and the rest by 11.30pm. The official results, including the counting of special votes, will be available about August 10.

Political leaders will be at electorate offices, hotels and halls around the country to watch the results come in.

Prime Minister Helen Clark and Labour Party supporters will take over the Mt Eden War Memorial Hall in Auckland tonight.

National leader Bill English's lair in the deep south will be Croydon Lodge, in Gore.

Progressive Coalition leader Jim Anderton will be at his home in Christchurch and United Future's Peter Dunne has opted to be at The Backbencher pub across the road from Parliament.

In Tauranga, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters will be at the Bureta Park Motor Inn.

The Greens' Jeanette Fitzsimons will track the results at the Thames race course. Her co-leader, Rod Donald, will be at the party's Christchurch electorate office.

Richard Prebble and members of the Act party have plumped for the University of Auckland's student function room.

Alliance leader Laila Harre and supporters will be at the party's electorate office in Henderson.

Live coverage tonight will begin at 7pm on TV One, TV3 and National Radio.

Both television networks are claiming the election equivalent of a Wild West gunfight - getting the results to air faster than their competitor.

TV3 claims it will deliver results the fastest, with a CNN-style running update displayed across the bottom of the screen.

TVNZ says it will have the numbers hot from the Electoral Office computer - which provides instant results to both networks and other media organisations - translated into graphics and on-air in points of a second.

TV One's election coverage from the Avalon studios, in Wellington, will be hosted by Mike Hosking, who is to be joined by the main party presidents and political analysts.

TV One will also cross to former MPs-turned-commentators, including Pam Corkery, Paul East and Doug Kidd, in Parliament's debating chamber.

The worm will plot the party votes as they come in, giving an estimate of how many seats each party can expect to win.

TV3's coverage will be hosted by John Campbell and has politicos Bob Harvey, Sandra Lee and Rodney Hide in the studio with analysts and commentators.

Comedian Raybon Kan will provide some light relief as the night stretches on.

Preliminary election results showing the overall position as well as individual electorates will be available on www.electionresults.govt.nz as they come in.

Results coverage begins 7pm Saturday on nzherald.co.nz