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A total of 19 registered political parties are contesting the election, with 17 parties submitting a party list. A total of 567 candidates will be contesting the 2023 General Election.

Candidate nominations for the election have now closed. Voters can find eligible parties and candidates online at vote.nz, as well as voting place locations for this election.

Registered parties seeking the party vote

The registered parties who have submitted a party list and are seeking the party vote in 2023 are (in alphabetical order):

1. ACT New Zealand
2. Animal Justice Party
3. Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party
4. DemocracyNZ
5. Freedoms NZ
6. Green Party
7. Labour Party
8. Leighton Baker Party
9. National Party
10. New Conservatives
11. New Nation Party
12. New Zealand First Party
13. New Zealand Loyal
14. NewZeal
15. Te Pāti Māori
16. The Opportunities Party (TOP)
17. Women’s Rights Party

Freedoms NZ is an umbrella party contesting the party vote with three component parties that are standing electorate candidates. The component parties are NZ Outdoors & Freedom Party and Vision New Zealand which are registered parties, and Rock the Vote NZ which is an unregistered party.

Democratic Alliance, which is a registered party, has not submitted a party list and is not seeking the party vote or standing any electorate candidates.

In 2020, 17 registered political parties contested the general election.

Candidates

A total of 567 candidates (electorate and list) are standing in this year’s election. This compares with 677 candidates in the 2020 election. It is similar to the number of candidates in previous elections; 534 in 2017, 554 in 2014, and 544 in 2011.

72 candidates are on the party lists only and 46 candidates for registered parties are standing as electorate candidates only. This year, 56 electorate candidates are standing as independents or representing unregistered parties (4 of these candidates are also on the Freedoms NZ list).

The number of candidates standing both as an electorate candidate and on a party list is 393.

The electorates with the most candidates are Dunedin, East Coast, Kaikōura and Wellington Central with 11 candidates each, and the electorates with the lowest number of candidates are Hauraki-Waikato, Ikaroa-Rāwhiti and Waiariki with 3 candidates each. 

The gender breakdown is as follows: 329 male, 229 female, 4 another gender and 5 not specified. In 2020 there were 413 male and 263 female candidates and 1 gender diverse/not specified. 

The breakdown of candidates is as follows: 

* Maximum number on the published list is 65.

Enrolment update

Enrolments received before the rolls closed for printing on 10 September (writ day) have been processed and 3,480,699 people are now on the electoral roll, which is 89.9% of estimated eligible voters. This compares with 89.2% in 2020. 73.2% of 18 to 29-year-olds are enrolled compared with 72% in 2020.  

The easiest way for people to enrol or update their details is online at vote.nz using their New Zealand driver licence, New Zealand passport or RealMe verified identity.  

From Monday 2 October when voting starts, you can enrol and vote at the same time at any voting place, including on election day, Saturday 14 October.   

Links to more information  

• Lists of electorate candidates are available here.  
• The party lists are available here.
• Voting place locations can be found on a map here.
• The latest enrolment figures by electorate are available here.