Mr Cunliffe said the issue of whether he would call New Zealand First's Winston Peters or the Greens' co-leaders first was a matter he was yet to reflect upon, but even when he had decided he would not reveal who.
"I'm going to treat all those processes as absolutely confidential while we're doing it."
At his final media conference before the election out in Manukau, Mr Cunliffe said Labour should not be written off and the latest polls showed a swing of only a couple of points from left to right could be enough to clinch it.
"It's an incredibly tight election and it's one that's unpredictable."
He said he did not know how long talks could take, but he was confident New Zealand would not be sent straight back to the polls by a hung Parliament.
Mr Cunliffe said there had been a "huge" advance vote this election and he believed that would benefit Labour.
"It's blown away all the history books. We don't know till tomorrow night what that's going to mean. All I can say is I'm running into people everywhere I go who tell me I've just voted and I voted Labour. So let's hope that's about 500,000 votes in the bag." Mr Cunliffe said that was one of the reasons he had voted early -- on the first day advance voting began on September 3.
He said comments by ratings agency Standard and Poors that it had no issue with either National or Labour governing should put to rest scaremongering about Labour's economic management.
"We are paying down National's record debt faster than they will, so Standard and Poors is quite right that there's absolutely nothing for the markets to be worried about."
He said voters wary of Labour's capital gains tax should be assured it did not affect the family home and was not retrospective.
By Claire Trevett of the New Zealand Herald
