Prime Minister announces election date

ONE NEWS: Prime Minister Helen Clark has announced New Zealand will head to the polls on Saturday November 8.

She made the announcement on Friday afternoon, following weeks of speculation.

The date is just one week before the last possible date that the election could have been held (November 15).

Dissolution of parliament will take place on October 3, writ day will be October 8 and nomination day will take place on October 14.

Clark waited until the end of her press conference to announce the date, preceeding it by laying down the foundations of how Labour would fight the election.

"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.

ONE News political editor Guyon Espiner says Clark believes the long, eight-week campaign leading up to the election will suit the Labour Party.

"We always thought Labour would have a long campaign. Their strategy is to put the pressure on National over that time," he says.

"The PM thinks the longer amount of time she has during the campaign, the better position she will be in.

"They think that if they can put pressure on National over time, they will break."

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.