Registered political parties - overview & register
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.
The main requirements for registration are having:
- 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.
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.)
Register of Political Parties
The Electoral Commission is required to maintain and make available for public inspection the Register of Political Parties. The register shows for each 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.
Logo
| Party name | Abbreviation |
|---|---|---|
 | The ACT Party | |
 | ALCP | |
|
| |
 | Progressive | |
 | ||
 |
| |
New World Order | N W O | |
 | NZ First | |
 | Labour Party | |
 | New Zealand Pacific Party |
|
 | RAM - Residents Action Movement | |
 | Alliance | |
 | The Bill and Ben Party | B&B |
 | Family Party | |
 | Green Party | |
 | The Kiwi Party | Kiwi Party |
 | Democrats for social credit | |
 | National Party | |
 | RONZP | |
 | UNITED FUTURE | |
 | Workers Party |
