The country's growing Asian population could see more representation in Parliament following the general election in November.

Eleven politicians of Asian heritage currently sit in the Beehive.

However, this number is almost certainly set to grow if recent polling and expected party list rankings hold true.

The latest RNZ-Reid Research poll in July gives Labour top spot with 34 percent of the party vote, followed by National at 28.7 percent, New Zealand First at 11.5 percent, the Green Party at 10.3 percent, ACT at 7.8 percent and Te Pāti Māori at 2.3 percent.

This result would give the ruling coalition 61 seats in total, with National picking up 36, New Zealand First 15 and ACT 10.

Conversely, Labour would get 43 seats, the Greens 13 and Te Pāti Māori three.

The above distribution would change significantly if the Opportunity Party managed to cross the 5 percent party vote threshold.

The RNZ-Reid Research poll in July had the party tracking at 4.7 percent.

On current polling, some candidates of Asian descent look likely to secure a seat in Parliament.

Former Health Minister and Labour List MP Ayesha Verrall, whose family hails from the Maldives, leads the pack as the highest-ranked Asian candidate with a ranking of six.

Indeed, Labour could have as many as four MPs of Asian heritage next term based on current polling.

In addition to Verrall, Sri Lankan New Zealander Vanushi Walters (list ranking 8), who is also the party's foreign affairs spokesperson, is likely to make the cut alongside career policeman Rakesh Naidoo (list ranking 13) and list MP Priyanca Radhakrishnan (list ranking 18) - both of Indian ethnicity.

Although Kharag Singh is ranked 61st on Labour's party list, the small business owner could secure a seat if he manages to regain the Takanini electorate back from National's Rima Nakhle.

Nakhle defeated Neru Leavasa of Labour to win Takanini by more than 8000 votes in 2023.

In 2023, Singh lost the Botany electorate to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon by more than 16,000 votes.

But with just under 40 percent of Takanini now identifying as Indian, Singh may fancy his chances.

Luxon, meanwhile, appears to be struggling to find Indian-origin candidates in realistic winnable positions to represent National in the election based on current polling.

In 2023, National selected an unprecedented five electoral candidates of Indian heritage to run for office.

However, all five were listed at 30 or higher and, standing in stronghold Labour seats, they lost their electorate battles and left National without an Indian MP over its current term.

Three of those candidates return in 2026, including Karuna Muthu from Wellington Bays and Ankit Bansal from Palmerston North.

Mahesh Muralidhar, who lost to Green Party leader Chlöe Swarbrick in Auckland Central by less than 4000 votes in 2023, is standing for the Tāmaki electorate this year.

Muralidhar's chances of winning Tāmaki got a shot in the arm in March when sitting electorate MP and former ACT deputy leader Brooke van Velden announced her retirement from politics.

Tāmaki has been a National stronghold for decades before van Velden turned it pink in 2023.

Muralidhar is hoping the seat turns blue once more.

Three new Indian New Zealanders are standing for National in the 2026 elections: Lalit Arya in Ōtāhuhu, Sunil Kumar in Glendene, and Ghouse Majeed in Manurewa.

The electorates apart from Tāmaki are opposition strongholds, and the five National candidates of Indian origin contesting those seats can realistically only hope to enter Parliament by virtue of high party list rankings based on current polling.

The National Party, ACT, New Zealand First and Te Pāti Māori have yet to release its party lists.

Labour, the Greens and the Opportunity Party have made their respective party lists public.

National does much better in terms of other Asian ethnicities, with senior MP and former minister Melissa Lee and list MP Nancy Lu already declared as candidates this time.

Lee, who is of South Korean origin, has been in the Beehive since 2008 and narrowly lost to Labour's Helen White in Mt Albert by 18 votes last election.

However, she entered Parliament for the current term based on her party list ranking of 13.

Lu, who is of Chinese heritage, was the highest-ranking candidate of Chinese descent in National, with a ranking of 20 in 2023.

She is once again standing as a list-only candidate in this year's election.

Another Chinese candidate in the blue corner is Carlos Cheung, who defeated Labour's Michael Wood in Auckland's Mt Roskill electorate in 2023.

Cheung would want to replicate his victory from three years ago or secure a higher list ranking this time. He was ranked 48 in National's party list in 2023.

One of the two Labour candidates of Chinese heritage is former MP Naisi Chen (2020-23), who is taking on Swarbrick in Auckland Central this year.

Chen lost to Minister Erica Stanford in the East Coast Bays electorate by more than 20,000 votes in 2023.

She is ranked 35 on Labour's list this time and would be hoping for an increase in her party's vote to enable her to return to Parliament.

Another is three-time Rotorua Lakes councillor Fisher Wang, who is contesting the Rotorua electorate on a Labour ticket.

Considering Trade Minister Todd McClay has held the seat ever since he defeated Labour's Steve Chadwick in 2008, Wang needs to cause a major upset if he is to enter Parliament this time. He is ranked a lowly 68 on the Labour party list.

Two remaining Asian candidates standing for Labour - Naresh Perinpanayagam (list ranking 57) and Sunita Gautam (an electorate-only candidate in the National stronghold of Selwyn) - don't seem likely to secure a seat come November based on current polling.

Ruling coalition partner ACT has named six candidates of Asian origin to date.

Of these, incumbent MP Parmjeet Parmar is likely to return to Parliament if she secures a similar party list ranking as in 2023 based on current polling.

Parmar was ranked nine on ACT's party list three years ago.

Other Asian ACT candidates include Abu Dhabi-born Ali Dahche, who is standing against Luxon in Botany, Himanshu (Ash) Parmar in the Waikato electorate, Malkiat Singh in Papakura, Manu Singh in Māngere and Yang Qu in Mt Roskill.

Himanshu Parmar narrowly missed out last time due to his relatively low party list ranking of 13.

With Waikato historically voting National, Parmar's only realistic hope of making it this time is to secure a list ranking in the single digits based on current polling.

On the other side of the aisle, the Greens have five candidates of Asian heritage, of which at least three are likely to return to the Parliament based on current polling.

These are sitting MPs Lan Pham, who is of Vietnamese heritage (list ranking six), China-born Lawrence Xu-Nan (list ranking eight) and Philippines-born Francisco Hernandez (list ranking 10).

Yasmine Serhan, who is the Green Party's electorate candidate for Glendene and is ranked 18 on the party list, may have to wait another term before she hopes to become New Zealand's first Palestinian MP based on current polling.

The sole Green candidate of South Asian origin is Shreejan Pandey (list ranking 22), who has Nepali heritage.

New Zealand First has declared at least one candidate of Asian origin in Bernadette Soares, who is standing for the party in Upper Harbour.

Soares moved to New Zealand from India in 1989 and runs a beauty product business.

Not new to electoral politics, she was a New Conservative candidate in 2020.

In 2023, she was the Upper Harbour electorate candidate for Destiny Church-linked Hannah Tamaki's party, Vision NZ.

Last but not least is the Opportunity Party, which could upend some of the above scenarios if it hits that 5 percent threshold to get a share of seats in Parliament.

In doing so, Opportunity leader Qiulae Wong could potentially be the first person of Asian heritage to head a political party in Parliament

Wong could even get into Parliament on her own if she wins the Mt Albert electorate race.

Five candidates of Asian origin have been named in Opportunity's party list, although none have a realistic chance of making the cut based on current polling, with the party securing six seats if it attains 5 percent of the vote.

Opportunity's Asian candidates are Singapore-born Chee Khiang Sng in Kāpiti (list ranking 26), Netra Ghimire of Nepalese origin in Palmerston North (list ranking 32) and Taiwan-born Johan Chang in Auckland Central (list ranking 36), as well as Chinese New Zealanders Almo Wong in Henderson (list ranking 37) and Kevin Huang in Pakuranga (list ranking 40).