Coalition negotiations are set to resume first thing this morning and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says they're on track to be able to announce the governing arrangement on Thursday.
Following the declaration of the final election count on Saturday, talks got underway in earnest at Parliament yesterday.
Mr Peters held meetings that each lasted about two-and-a-half hours, first with National and then with Labour.
In brief remarks to reporters afterwards, National leader Bill English said his party's negotiations "went just fine" and Mr Peters also said the meeting had gone fine.
After Labour's talks, leader Jacinda Ardern said it was an "excellent and productive meeting."
Mr Peters later confirmed that he expects the negotiations to start again first thing this morning and to go late into the night.
1 NEWS political reporter Katie Bradford says while Mr Peters didn't want to talk to reporters earlier after his meeting with National he was more open last evening after meeting with Labour.
He said the talks are progressing well, they're on track and they're going how he wants them to go, to be able to announce what the governing arrangement will be sometime on Thursday.
Asked by Bradford what he's been focusing on in the talks, Mr Peters said the focus is on where the parties' policies match up - NZ First with National, and NZ First with Labour.
He said there hasn't been any talk of ministerial roles.
Mr Peters said once he's ready to make a decision, he'll be talking to his caucus and then taking that decision to the NZ First board before telling the public what it will be.
The seat count
The release on Saturday of the special vote count saw National lose two seats from the election night results and Labour and the Greens gain one seat each.
National now has 56, Labour 46, NZ First nine, the Greens eight and ACT one.
The opposition parties are in a stronger position than they were on election night when Labour, the Greens and NZ First had a total 61 seats - a bare majority of one vote in the 120-member Parliament.
Now they have 63, against a total of 65 for a National/NZ First combination.
SHARE ME