Political parties registered with the Electoral Commission at writ day: may nominate a party list to contest the party vote, can be considered for an allocation of election broadcast advertising time and funds, and will have a party election expense limit on top of the election expense limit available to every electorate candidate.

• a name that is not likely to cause offence or confusion, which refers to a title or honour, or is too long;
• 500 or more current financial members eligible to enrol as electors; and
• an auditor. 

Being registered requires a party to, among other things: have rules providing for the democratic participation of members in candidate selection, make annual returns of donations, make annual declarations of having at least 500 current financial members and the intent to contest elections, and make party election expense declarations. Most of these documents are available for public inspection.  Copies of registered political parties' rules are provided as downloadable pdf documents at right.

Registration is only relevant to electoral-related law and does not change or establish the legal type of entity a party has or chooses (such as incorporated or unincorporated society, limited liability company, etc).

(Unregistered parties may contest electorate seats at any general or by-election.  All electorate candidates must make individual election expense returns, including donations received for their campaigns.  The election expense returns for all candidates of an unregistered party must together cover all the election expenses of that party.)

The Electoral Commission is required to maintain and make available for public inspection the Register of Political Parties.  The register shows for each registered party its name, any abbreviated name, any component parties, dates of registration of the party and any logo, details of its secretary and contact information, along with dates of amendments. 

The following table lists current registered political parties, any registered abbreviated name for use on ballot papers, any registered logo, and includes links to party websites.  The current Register of Political Parties is provided as a downloadable .pdf document, at right.  An Excel spreadsheet is also provided giving names and addresses of party secretaries.  This spreadsheet can be used for mail merging.

The Register of Political Parties can also be inspected at the Electoral Commission offices, Level 9, 17-21 Whitmore Street, Wellington, between 9am and 5pm weekdays.

Logo	Party name	Abbreviation
	ACT New Zealand	The ACT Party
	Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party	ALCP
	Jim Anderton's Progressive	Progressive
	Conservative Party of New Zealand	Conservative Party
	Libertarianz
	Mana
	Māori Party
	New Citizen Party
	New Zealand First Party	NZ First
	New Zealand Labour Party	Labour Party
	The Alliance	Alliance
	The Greens, The Green Party of Aotearoa/New Zealand	Green Party
	The Kiwi Party	Kiwi Party
	The New Zealand Democratic Party for Social Credit	Democrats for social credit
	The New Zealand National Party	National Party
	UNITED FUTURE NEW ZEALAND	UNITED FUTURE