Polls have opened in New Zealand to choose the make-up of its fifty-second Parliament, in a close-run race between the governing National Party and the opposition Labour Party.
Doors to the polling booths opened at 0900 local time, though a record number of voters had already cast their ballots in advance.
More than 986,000 ballots have already been cast, accounting for almost a third of the 3.2 million New Zealanders on the electoral rolls.
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The centre-left Labour Party, led by recently appointed 37-year-old leader Jacinda Ardern, was vying against the incumbent National Party. The centre-right governing party, led by 55-year-old Bill English, had been in power for almost a decade.
