By Lucy Craymer

WELLINGTON The centre-right National Party led by Christopher Luxon held a strong lead in New Zealand's general election on Saturday, with 20% of the vote counted.

The National Party, which is currently in opposition, had 41.4% of the votes to 26% for the current governing party Labour, according to the Electoral Commission.

The conservative National Party's preferred coalition partner, the ACT party, had 9.2%.

New Zealand's Electoral Commission said that National and ACT would have 63 of the usual 120 seats in parliament, sufficient for them to form a government without the help of a third minor party.

However, the number of seats in New Zealand's parliament can go above 120 if a party wins more electorate seats than is proportional to its share of the party vote. Te Pati Maori is currently winning in five electorates, which would give it more seats than its 2.4% party vote.

This could mean the right bloc will need more than 61 seats to attain a majority.

The provisional count of votes is expected to be completed later this evening but the official vote count, which includes overseas votes, is not due until Nov. 3.

While polls had predicted the opposition National Party would gain the largest share of the vote, it is doing better than expected, while Labour is falling well short of what polls had indicated.

Under former leader Jacinda Ardern, Labour in 2020 became the first party to capture an outright majority since New Zealand switched to a mixed member proportional system in 1996.

But Labour has since lost support as many New Zealanders blame it for the country's long COVID-19 lockdown and the rising cost of living.

National has campaigned on providing relief for struggling middle-income New Zealanders, bringing historically high inflation under control, and reducing the country's debt.

(Reporting by Lucy Craymer; Editing by Edmund Klamann)