The diminished National Party caucus will soon get to vote on whether or not to continue with Judith Collins as leader.
The veteran MP for Papakura assumed the leadership in July during a tumultuous time for the party, the third to take the reins in less than two months.
She led the party to a landslide defeat, getting just 26.8 percent of the vote in the preliminary result - well below the 35 percent cutoff point she once said would be reason to resign.
While she's vowed to stay on, there is a little hoop she has to jump through first - keeping the backing of her 34 MPs.
"What happens with the caucus in the National Party is after each election, once all the special votes come in, is the leadership and whips are then put to the caucus to decide if that's what they want to continue with," she told The AM Show on Wednesday.
"Every leader and deputy leader and the whips have to put themselves up. That's what we do in the National Party and we've always done it like that."
The final result including the special votes, out this Friday, is likely to see National lose a seat - in 2014 and 2017 Maureen Pugh was in on the preliminary result, but ejected once the special votes were counted, and it's likely to happen again.
"I call myself the yo-yo MP. I'm up and down, up and down, up and down," she told RNZ after the preliminary results showed once again, she was in limbo.
Pugh came into Parliament when Sir Bill English resigned in 2018, after failing to secure victory at the 2017 election. If she loses out on the special votes, Pugh will be first in line for National should another veteran National MP call it a day - such as Nick Smith or Gerry Brownlee, the party's current deputy leader.
Collins said it was up to Brownlee if he wants to stay on in the role, or hang up his hat.
"Gerry will make his own decisions on whether or not he does that, and I have a lot of confidence in Gerry
"He has been outstanding and stalwart to me and the National Party, and so I'm going to talk to him. It's up to him entirely. It's not something I've discussed with him."
As for her shadow Cabinet, Collins says an announcement will be made next week.
"It's progressing well. I've been having meetings with each of our MPs to go through what they can contribute, and also what their wishes are in terms of their own career development to make sure that we get the right fit.
"We've got the special votes coming out on Friday, so we'll know if there is anybody who loses their seats, or any seats that are gained. It's important to wait for that. Then we have the caucus next Tuesday where the leadership positions are confirmed, and then the release will be after that."
