Vote 2017: Winston Peters has aces to play

Kingmaker again - but this time only by the narrowest of margins - Winston Peters and New Zealand First are crucial to give a National Government the two extra seats it needs to govern.

On election-night results, Peters has lost his own seat of Northland but National and its one-seat ally Act have only 59 seats, needing New Zealand First's nine seats for a majority in the 120-seat Parliament.

"We don't have all the cards, but we do have the main cards," Peters told his supporters in Russell.

It was an extraordinary finish for a 72-year-old who entered Parliament 39 years ago.

His party support shot up to 13 per cent in late July but fell back to near-oblivion on 5 per cent in one poll in late September as Labour's new leader Jacinda Ardern soared and Peters was wounded by revelations that he had had to repay over-payments of his superannuation.

The party ended comfortably above the 5 per cent threshold, with 7.5 per cent of the election-night vote, down only slightly from last time.

The result places Peters in a position to choose between National and Labour, although choosing Labour would also have to involve support from the Greens and the three-party grouping would only just have the required 61 seats.

Peters has consistently refused to express a preference for either major party, leaving himself with the maximum clout to negotiate.

He has always despised Green policies which are anathema to his mostly elderly and conservative followers, so as in 2005 any deal with Labour would be likely to mean leaving the Greens out of the Cabinet but agreeing to support a Labour-NZ First coalition.

Other minor parties have been squeezed out of contention. The Maori Party has dropped out of Parliament as Labour swept all seven Maori seats. United Future was finished with just 0.1 per cent. Gareth Morgan's Opportunities Party failed to fire with 2.2 per cent of the vote.