Voters turned out in large numbers in New Zealand's general election on Saturday, with polls suggesting the centre-right National Party will oust Prime Minister Helen Clark's nine-year-old Labour government, dpa reported.
Queues were reported before the polls opened in some cities as fine weather brought out voters early and a large turnout was being predicted, with advance and absentee votes already cast up nearly a third on the 2005 election.
Labour leader Clark voted at a school near her home and said the party was making every effort to get supporters to the polls.
"I've been out visiting very large headquarters for us, we have countless thousands of people mobilising Labour supporters out to the polling booths today, I'm feeling very good about it," she told reporters.
Opinion polls published in the last day of the campaign put Clark's centre-left Labour between 11 and 17 percentage points behind the National Party.
National's leader John Key spent time with campaign workers before heading home to be with his family before results come out on Saturday night.
Whoever wins, few major policy shifts are expected. Both the main parties have promised tax cuts and extra spending to help cushion an economy already in recession and expected to suffer further fallout from the global credit crisis.