Nominations for the leadership closed on 14 October, and Labour Party members met the candidates in 14 hustings meetings throughout the country.

Candidates, in the order of their nominations being put forward, were Grant Robertson, Andrew Little, David Parker and Nanaia Mahuta.

The Labour Party's leader, Helen Clark, resigned on election night and was replaced days later by long-serving MP and former Cabinet minister Phil Goff.

Based on the interim results, the National Party had achieved an absolute majority of seats (61 out of 121),[a] unprecedented under the mixed-member proportional (MMP) representation system in place since the 1996 election.

[10] Calls for Cunliffe's resignation appeared the day after the election from caucus colleagues,[11] and political commentators pointed out that Cunliffe provided a long list of reasons in his concession speech why Labour had failed to win the election, but that he had failed to point the finger at himself.

[12][13][14] According to political journalist Andrea Vance, the concession speech was written the day before the election, when the magnitude of the defeat was of course yet unknown.

Voting by the Labour membership was possible through the post and online, and the election result were scheduled for announcement on 18 November 2014.

[20] Robertson announced on 27 September that he would contest the leadership election, stating that he "couldn't stand by and see the party poll 24% and not put my name forward".

[34][35] A poll by Television New Zealand's One News in late September 2014 suggested that Jacinda Ardern would gain support from the public.

David Parker would not answer questions about his future in Parliament, but signalled that he was not interested in retaining the finance portfolio.