Follow full NZ Herald coverage of Election Night 2020 - watch or follow live above - or listen live to Newstalk ZB, as Mike Hosking and Heather du Plessis-Allan, along with New Zealand's best political journalists and commentators, unpick tonight's big results.
Tonight, two women – both born in Hamilton and raised in rural Waikato farming towns just 22km apart – go head to head. Who will serve as Prime Minister in New Zealand's 53rd Parliament, and who will occupy the opposition benches?
And while Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins learn their fate, so five critical questions will be answered for their parties:
The Labour Party and Ardern have been soaring in pre-election polls – have they done enough to govern, and perhaps even govern alone?
Or has Collins, only recently minted as National Party leader, crushed the pundits to send Labour back to the cross-benches after just one term?
Is this the end of Winston Peters after 35 years in Parliament – and the NZ First party he formed in 1993? Has he paid the price for his coalition decision three years ago?
ACT leader David Seymour is set to sail into Parliament on the back of his Epsom electorate – but how many MPs might join him?
And perhaps among the most intriguing questions – will the Greens firstly pass the 5 per cent party vote threshold, and then hold the key to unlocking a second term for Labour? And what price will they put on power?
Kiwis also voted today in two historic referendums – legalising cannabis and euthansia. But the results of these polls won't be known for several more weeks.
Tonight, it's about the politics. Tonight we get the answers.
We're coming live from our multi-purpose NZ Herald-Newstalk ZB newsroom in central Auckland, from all of the major parties' election-night headquarters, and from NZME newsrooms across New Zealand.
With Hosking in the Newstalk ZB studio and du Plessis Allan leading a panel of expert commentators and analysts, we've got you covered from every angle and on every news platform.
Stay with us as we bring you full coverage, breaking news, indepth analysis and all of the fallout of an election campaign unlike any other, delayed and heavily influenced by a worldwide pandemic that has killed more than one million people.