If the Greens or NZ First are hoping for Labour to cut an Epsom-style deal to ensure they make it back into Parliament, they should prepare to be disappointed.
First-term Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick, recently promoted to third on the party's list, announced a few weeks ago she intends to try and win the Auckland Central electorate - not just campaign for the party vote.
"The Greens have always been underdogs who defied the odds, fighting for every inch of political ground," said Swarbrick, the youngest MP currently in the House said. "I'm bringing that fight to Auckland Central."
The seat is currently held by National's Nikki Kaye, but every single one of Kaye's victories since 2008 has been by a margin so small, if every Green voter had given their vote to the Labour candidate, Labour would have won the seat - and vice versa.
With the Greens polling close to the 5 percent party vote threshold required to enter Parliament without a seat, winning Auckland Central would guarantee the party makes it back in - improving the chances of a left coalition forming the next Government, perhaps without New Zealand First.
And New Zealand First - Labour's current coalition partner - are languishing below the threshold, also at risk of failing to get back into Parliament.
But Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told Newshub Nation on Saturday there are no plans to cut a deal with anyone.
"We haven't done those in the past, and I see no reason to change that position," she told host Tova O'Brien.
"We run in seats in order to give choices to voters, and we also run in seats because we think that representation locally and holding seats, working on the ground alongside constituents is really important to us as a party. And so that's why we take that approach."
National runs candidates in Epsom, despite encouraging voters to give their candidate vote to ACT, hoping to bring in more MPs on the right. In 2011 National candidate, now finance spokesperson Paul Goldsmith, was seen removing unofficial signs urging voters to give him the tick.
Goldsmith told Newshub Nation last year he was fine with not winning the electorate.
"That's how MMP works. It's a funny system.
"I never voted for it. I don't like it, but that's what we've got... I've always, of course, lived in the electorate and made sure that the people there actually end up with two MPs, and I'm as out-and-about and as active as I can be."
