What this site is, and where the numbers come from
Kōwhiringa Ledger is a neutral, sourced reference for New Zealand's 2026 general election. It brings together 491 policy commitments across 47 issue areas, 327 electorate candidates in 72 electorates, 336 ranked party-list places, and a growing archive of 695+ news items, speeches and party statements — each linked back to the place it was published.
How the data is compiled
The foundation is a hand-checked research workbook covering every tracked party's published policy positions, candidate announcements and party lists. On top of that, an automated collector runs several times a day, searching public news and party sources, reading the articles it finds, and adding new coverage, speeches and statements to the archive.
Collected items are de-duplicated by web address, tagged with the party or parties they mention, and labelled by type — article, speech, statement or party release. An item that names two or more parties is filed as cross-party rather than attributed to one side.
Polling
Individual polls are listed with their pollster, fieldwork dates and published party percentages. Monthly averages on the overview and polls pages are simple averages of the polls in that month, not a weighted model or a forecast.
Electorate-level polling is not shown. Where no published electorate figure exists, we leave it out rather than estimate it.
Neutrality
Party positions are reproduced in the party's own framing and are not fact-checked, ranked or scored here. No party is given more prominence than another: the same fields are shown for each, and ordering follows polling or alphabetical rules rather than editorial preference.
Corrections and limits
Automated collection can miss items, mislabel a party, or pick up coverage that is later corrected by the publisher. Always check the linked source before relying on an entry, and treat official information from vote.nz and the Electoral Commission as authoritative for dates, enrolment and voting.