There's been a seismic vote switch in the minor parties with New Zealand First voters flocking to ACT, which is now fighting with the Greens for third place in Parliament.
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has fought 16 general elections, and despite Newshub's latest poll showing his party might not make it back to Parliament, he told Newshub he's feeling confident.
"You're going to look stupid on election night, that's the feeling I'm getting," he said on Sunday.
Peters has won over Kiwi Shortland Street megastar Teuila Blakely, who ran into him on the campaign trail and told him he's got her vote.
"New Zealand First for life, always vote for you uncle, you know that," she told him.
But it doesn't seem to be enough this time. New Zealand First is on the way down polling at 1.9 percent in the latest Newshub-Reid Research poll.
"I don't have any regard to your polls," Peters told Newshub.
Peters said he's confident his party will make it back.
"Of course I've always believed that, and we've done it all these years."
So the old saying goes, you should never ever write off Winston Peters. But it’s getting harder to believe he'll return as we get closer to Election Day, and his poll numbers aren't shifting up.
His votes have bled away to the Prime Minister he anointed, Labour leader Jacinda Ardern, and been gobbled up by his nemesis, ACT leader David Seymour, who is lapping up the attention.
Newshub's latest poll has ACT on 6.3 percent and Seymour is fizzing with the result.
"I'm going to work even harder, this result energises ACT, we're getting some red bull into the campaign," he told Newshub.
He's now neck-and-neck with the Greens, battling for third place in Parliament.
After the Omni shambles of the Green School, 6.5 percent is a riot for the Greens.
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson said people received co-leader James Shaw's apology over the Green School debacle "well".
But she seemed to be in disbelief when Newshub told her the party's polling numbers.
"6.5! Wait..."
She's not taking anything for granted.
"We need to be well above 5 percent in polls for me to feel any sort of comfort for the fact that we'll get back in at all."
The latest Newshub-Reid Research poll was conducted between 16-23 September 2020, and 1000 people were surveyed - 700 by telephone and 300 by internet panel. It has a margin of error of 3.1 percent.
