Hamilton West by-election coming down to the wire as National, Labour battle for votes

The Hamilton West by-election is coming down to the wire.

Triggered by the resignation of former Labour MP Gaurav Sharma, Saturday's results could be a litmus test for next year's general election.

The two main party's candidates were out on Friday for one last sign-waving session - and one got a stop-in from the boss.

National's Tama Potaka has put the whanau to work, clearing up his signs and hoping to clean up the by-election tomorrow.

"I've been working hard, and I've been trying to get out with my team, with my whanau, to engage with people," he said.

The final day, the final push. No sign of his leader but plenty of toots.

"What I'm going to do is work hard right up until midnight tonight, I could be out clubbing later on," he said.

Labour's Georgie Dansey had a last-minute stop-in from the boss.

"Go well I hear it's going to be raining - if there's one thing I've learnt, if you door-knock in the rain, you get extra sympathy on the doorstep and people think if you can doorstep I can vote," Ardern said.

And she is rating her chances.

"I'm gonna win!" Dansey said.

Labour's confident they've got the ground game to turn out the vote.

"We've really put in the work to make sure that we've spoken to every... every opportunity we've spoken to people, to get them to the voting booth," Dansey said.

Hamilton West is a traditional bellwether. It swings with the mood of the nation - and Jacinda Ardern and Christopher Luxon have each been howling their underdog status from the rooftops.

"By-elections are always unpredictable," Ardern said.

And it might just come down to who can turn their voters out.