The Prime Minister has announced the election date.
Helen Clark says the country will head to the polls on Saturday November 8.
She made the announcement on Friday afternoon, following weeks of speculation on when the election would be held.
Dissolution of parliament will take place on October 3.
"This election is about trust. It's about which leader and which major party we New Zealanders trust our families' and country's future with," Clark said in her announcement.
ONE News political commentator Therese Arseneau says while Clark calling the election is no surprise, it does answer a lot of questions.
"People have been calling for an election, people are concerned about the affair in terms of Winston Peters and Owen Glenn and so many of the issues that surround that really aren't legal, so much as political. So the proper forum to decide them really is in the election," she says.
The Labour Party has been trailing National in the ONE News Colmar Brunton poll since the last election in 2005.
However, the difference between the two parties started to grow significantly in September 2006, when National were polled ahead of Labour by 11 percentage points. Since then Labour has struggled to rein in the Opposition party at poll time.
The poll prior to the election date called in 2005 put National (42%) marginally ahead of Labour (39%). Even if polls do not predict election outcomes, that three percentage point difference was much less of a hurdle to overcome than the current 14 points, even if Labour has gained in the last two polls.
In the latest ONE News Colmar Brunton poll, National were on 51% support. Labour had closed the gap a little on the previous month moving up to two points to 37%. But that was at the expense of key supporters the Green Party, who were polling at just 3.5%, the best of the minor parties none of whom were polling above the 5% threshold.
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