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At the last NZ election there were, deep breath… 19 registered political parties contesting the general election. On 16 September 2023, the Electoral Commission stated:
‘A total of 19 registered political parties is 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):
ACT New Zealand
Animal Justice Party
Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party
Democracy NZ
Freedoms NZ
Green Party
Labour Party
Leighton Baker Party
National Party
New Conservatives
New Nation Party
New Zealand First Party
New Zealand Loyal
New Zeal
Te Pāti Māori
The Opportunities Party (TOP)
Women’s Rights Party
Plus. 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.’
For interest, the number of registered political parties contesting the general election has steadily increased over the years.
2011 – 13
2014 – 14
2017 – 16
2020 – 17
2023 – 19
It was alarming to watch the extent of the political split of this little country, with far too many small parties. Would we get even have enough votes to toss out the dreadful Labour Party, let alone have the numbers to take steps towards electing a conservative party that would repeal or roll back the DEI, woke, global agenda put in place by Ardern’s government? It became questionable as the numbers of parties grew. It was particularly galling to observe a fracture between people after the unifying protest on parliament grounds.
This same phenomenon is being enacted in Britain right now. The election is years away, but voters are swinging towards Reform (Nigel Farage’s) party, then they flick over to Restore, the newest party formed by straight-talking Rupert Lowe. Then there is Advance UK with Ben Habib. In desperation people and polls are already indicating numbers are plummeting for the current UK Labour government, but also for the Conservative Party. People are leaving both main parties but clutching at the smaller parties in hope one of them will be capable of turning their country back to being proud and British.
Here is one British woman’s journey thus far:
From Reform UK to Restore Britain | Free Speech Backlash
In the turbulent landscape of British politics post-Brexit, my political journey encapsulated the disillusionment and ideological shifts among right-wing patriots who have navigated the fracturing right wing scene.
New Zealand suffered badly under Ardern’s tyrannical, ‘single source of truth’ Covid litany of lies reign and, accordingly, she agreed she divided Kiwis into two classes of people. There was a moment in time when awake Kiwis felt relieved and unified. Being united politically with the other awake Kiwis was short lived, though. People’s loyalties changed very quickly after the protest, leaving their party for another, then swinging to another. Many would say this was a good transition, as some Kiwis went from National to Democracy NZ to NZ First.
The last election result was:
National – 38.06%
Labour – 26.91%
Greens – 11.60%
Act – 8.64%
New Zealand First – 6.08%
Te Pāti Māori – 3.08%
Some of the new party leaders were dreaming they would get over the threshold of five per cent. They seem to ignore strategic voting to get a desired result. Did egos get in the way?
Kiwis got there in the end with National, ACT and NZF, forming a centre-right-wing coalition, thus removing Labour from power and away from the purse strings.
These are important election questions we must face again this year.
How many parties will be on offer?
How do we vote strategically?
Sometimes some minds can’t be changed. Richard on X: "True.... https://t.co/75h840XNYn" / X
