The electoral commission was not due to announced the official result until 27 November.

Luxon congratulated Hipkins on a “very hard-fought race” before addressing party colleagues, saying “whatever the final count, we are incredibly proud of each and everyone for you”.

“The people have spoken,” Hipkins said, adding: “It may take a bit longer to work out what they’ve said”.

Hipkins said the results made clear the “next parliament is going to require all of us to compromise, to work together and to find a common ground”.

More than 99% of votes have been counted in New Zealand, with National and Labour neck-and-neck in terms of vote share.

But the preliminary results pointed to historically low support for the two major parties, with a combined vote share of around 60%.

They were followed by the Greens, ACT, New Zealand First, centrist party Opportunity and Te Pāti Māori, which represents Māori interests.

The Opportunity Party crossed the 5% threshold to enter parliament for the first time, with leader Qiulae Wong saying would work with either side.

It has been described as this election’s kingmaker as it remains open to working with either major bloc, but its leaders said they would negotiate first with the party that secures the most seats.

Speaking at Opportunity’s watch party, Wong told supporters: “We believe that we can change the way we do politics to focus on the future, on the next generation, and on finding common ground.”

Professor Andrew Geddis from the University of Otago, an expert in election law, said “the Opportunity Party as a wildcard player” could “determine which bloc of parties is able to govern”.

“It will come down to some very fine vote margins not just between the parties, but in individual electorates. We are going to have to wait for the special votes to be processed and counted over the next three weeks,” he said.

Special votes are votes cast outside a voter’s electorate, including overseas.

The Greens – who have proposed forcing the country’s two main supermarkets to divest stores to create publicly-owned shops – saw their vote rise by a couple of percentage points.