With polls across the country now closed, New Zealanders will soon find out who will form their new government. Check back here for results, reactions and updates throughout the night.

7:15pm: About 20 supporters have gathered at Delaney House in Invercargill to watch the big projector screen with Labour candidate Lesley Soper.

7.20: With 4.7 per cent of the votes counted in the Clutha-Southland electorate, National candidate Todd Barclay is out on front, with 2407 votes so far.Labour's Liz Craig is in second, with 719 votes.

7.30: With almost 10 per cent of Invercargill Electorate votes counted, National candidate Sarah Dowie has taken an early lead. 

Dowie has about 4000 votes, while Labour candidate has received about 2350.

New Zealand First candidate Ria Bond and Green Party candidate Dave Kennedy are neck-and-neck, with about 500 votes each.

Conservative Party candidate Laura Storr has about 80 votes, while Democrats for Social Credit candidate Stephnie De Reuyter has about 140 votes.

7.35: National candidate Todd Barclay has a strong lead in the Clutha-Southland electorate, ahead of Liz Craig by more than 5000 votes with 16.3 per cent of the votes counted.

With just over 12 per cent of the Invercargill vote counted, National candidate Sarah Dowie continues to increase her lead, with 3965 votes, 1600 more than Labour candidate Lesley Soper, who has 2361 votes.

7.40: NZ First candidate Ria Bond has arrived at the Appleby Blues Bar to a gathering of about 20 supporters.

She walked into the room with New Zealand band Six60's hit Don't Forget Your Roots playing on the sound system.

7.50: Ain't no party like a Clutha-Southland National party party .... No really, there's no one here yet.

8pm: Party faithful have gathered at Crowe Horwath to welcome Invercargill National Party Candidate Sarah Dowie.

It is widely expected that Dowie will win the seat, after retiring Invercargill MP Eric Roy held it for the past three terms.

However, Dowie is being kept away from the crowd until the results have been announced.

Dowie's campaign manager Jon Turnbull said his team ran the campaign with the attitude that they were going to lose.

Turnbull said nationally the campaign had been messy but all Invercargill candidates had conducted themselves well.

How much Dowie won by was not a consideration, Turnbull said he just wanted to see her get across the line.

8.15: Things are starting to ramp up in Gore. The bar is now open, people have started to show up, the sound is now working and man of the hour, National Party candidate Todd Barclay himself has arrived.

8.25: Nearly 20 per cent of the Invercargill votes have been counted and National's Sarah Dowie is still well ahead.

8.30: About 150 people are glued to television screens at the National Party gathering in Invercargill.

With plenty of wine and food on tap, the crowds are happy but Dowie's sprint out the front has also pleased many.

She has a clear lead on her main opponent Lesley Soper, but Turnbull said he won't be celebrating until he knows the team have the result they want.

With 43 per cent of the votes now counted in Clutha-Southland, National candidate Todd Barclay has secured his lead in the electorate. He is 5709 votes ahead of Labour candidate Liz Craig. Green party candidate Rachael Goldsmith is in third place on 676 votes.

8.35: At 24 years of age, Barclay will be giving up the last of his years as a wayward youth if he gets the nod from the voting public. When asked, he remained unfazed, saying he was never really that out there anyway.

"It's not like I'd go out and get plonkered anyway ... As a public figure you've got to be aware anything you do could end up on the front page."

Meanwhile, Dowie's husband, Mark Billcliff said he was immensely proud of his wife, who had worked tirelessly.

With a four-year-old daughter and two-year-old son, Billcliff said his wife had balanced being a mum with being an aspiring politician.

The children had "mum's day" on a Thursday and family was still the priority in the household.

"We both love Invercargill, we both want Invercargill to strive."

8.45: With just over 40 per cent of the Invercargill votes counted, Sarah Dowie is ahead of Lesley Soper by more than 3000 votes.

New Zealand First candidate Ria Bond and Green candidate David Kennedy are neck and neck in third place, with Bond on 733 votes and Kennedy on 713.

8.55: Clutha-Southland electorate Labour candidate Liz Craig has just finished making cups of tea for supporters who are with her at her home in Romahapa.

She will now sit down and tune in to the election coverage, she said.

When told she was about 4,000 votes behind National candidate Todd Barclay with about 50 per cent of votes counted, Craig said "sounds good."

"We'll wait to see what the rest of the numbers say," she said.

Meanwhile, Democrats for social credit party candidate Stephnie de Ruyter is relaxing at home with supporters as they wait for the local result.

8.45: Clutha-Southland Conservatives party candidate Lachie Ashton is watching the election unfold at home. With 50 per cent of the votes now counted in the electorate, Ashton has attracted 532 votes. National candidate Todd Barclay leads on 8,861.

Ashton says he will be interested to see if the Conservative party breaks through the 5 per cent threshold and make it into parliament. Nationally, the party is sitting at 4.3 per cent of the vote, with 31.2 per cent of the party vote counted.

Independent candidate Karl Barkley is watching the rugby in Arrowtown, and says he will find out tomorrow if he has got a job. He says it is not too surprising to see Todd Barclay out in the lead, as the seat is a traditional National seat.

9pm: Big cheers from Todd Barclay's camp as the latest stats for Clutha-Southland flash on screen. He's leading by a significant margin.

9.20: With nearly 60 per cent of the Waitaki votes counted, National candidate Jacqui Dean is romping in, with 12,205 votes, well ahead of Labour candidate Glenda Alexander, who has 3783 votes.

Meanwhile, Invercargill Labour candidate Lesley Soper is anxiously watching the results slowly come in.

9.40: Turnbull says Dowie's campaign team made 1100 door knocks, 7000 phone calls, dropped 60,000 pamphlets, sent 20,000 personal letters and held five public meetings during the election campaign to ensure Dowie gets into parliament.

If Dowie is elected tonight, she will the first elected woman to represent Invercargill as its Minister of Parliament.

9.50: With all the votes now counted in the Clutha-Southland electorate, National candidate Todd Barclay has officially won the seat, by a margin of more than 13,000.

10pm: National's Sarah Dowie has won the Invercargill seat. Dowie won the seat with a 6922 vote majority over Labour candidate Lesley Soper.

With cheers from the room and thank you speeches, Dowie says she is looking forward to the next three years and representing Invercargill.

Meanwhile, it's very quiet at Invercargill Green candidate Dave Kennedy's place. He's a bit disappointed about where the party vote is at. "It's not looking as good as I'd hoped."

10.05:  Cheers of jubilation rang out as the Clutha-Southland result came in Barclay's favour.

Upon hearing the results, Barclay said he was very pleased.

Dowie's campaign manager says: "Time to have a party,"

10.15: In the midst of the election results, Labour's Invercargill candidate Lesley Soper has announced she will not be standing for nationwide politics again.

11pm: Labour incumbent Rino Tirikatene was returned as the MP for the southern Maori seat of Te Tai Tonga. Voters preferred him by a majority of 3070 over the Maori Party's Ngaire Button, an increase from his 2011 majority of 1475.

The candidates (incumbent in bold):

INVERCARGILL

• Ria Bond, New Zealand First
• Stephnie De Ruyter, Democrats for Social Credit
• Sarah Dowie, National
• David Kennedy, Green Party
• Lesley Soper, Labour Party
• Laura Storr, Conservative Party

CLUTHA-SOUTHLAND

• Lachie Ashton, Conservative Party
• Todd Barclay, National Party
• Karl Barkley, NZ Independent Coalition
• Liz Craig, Labour Party
• Rachael Goldsmith, Green Party
• Jason Jobsis, Democrats for Social Credit
• Don Nicolson, ACT New Zealand
• James Veint, Ban1080

WAITAKI

• Glenda Alexander, Labour Party
• Donald Aubrey, Conservative Party
• Sue Coutts, Green Party
• Jacqui Dean, National Party
• Hessel Van Wieren, Democrats for Social Credit

TE TAI TONGA

• Georgina Beyer, Mana Movement
• Rino Tirikatene, Labour Party
• Ngaire Button, Maori Party
• Emma-Jane Kingi, Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party
• Dora Langsbury, Green Party
• Hahona Tamati, Democrats for Social Credit

Thousands of Southlanders cast their vote at polling stations across the region today, joining those who had voted early in the lead up to election day.

This year's campaign has been branded one of the dirtiest in New Zealand history by some, and the effects of that controversy will be revealed tonight.

Counting of early votes began at 2pm, while counting of those cast today began at 7pm.

A total of 3.09 million people - more than 91 per cent of eligible voters - registered ahead of the election.

- The Southland Times