Electoral Commission releases full list of parties and candidates for 2011 election The Electoral Commission has released the nominations for the 2011 General Election, with 13 registered political parties and 544 candidates contesting the election. Registered Parties Seeking the Party Vote The registered parties seeking the party vote are: ACT New Zealand Alliance Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party Conservative Party Democrats for Social Credit Green Party Labour Party Libertarianz Mana Māori Party National Party New Zealand First Party United Future There were 19 registered political parties and 682 candidates contesting the election in 2008. Candidates A total of 544 candidates (electorate and list) are standing in this year’s election. This compares with 682 candidates in the 2008 election. 91 candidates are on the party list only and 73 are standing as electorate candidates only. 30 electorate candidates are standing as independents or representing unregistered parties (only registered parties are eligible to contest the party vote). The number of candidates standing both as an electorate candidate and on a party list is 380. The electorate with the most candidates is Wellington Central with 12 and the electorate with the lowest number of candidates is Waiariki with 3. 397 men and 147 women are standing in the 2011 General Election. In 2008 there were 488 men and 194 women standing. 1 The elections website www.elections.org.nz has a full list of electorate candidates http://www.elections.org.nz/voting/voting-info and the party lists http://www.elections.org.nz/elections/party-lists. Below is the number of list candidates and the number of electorate candidates representing those parties seeking the party vote. Number of List Electorate Party Candidates Candidates Candidates ACT New Zealand 56 55 50 Alliance 14 14 5 Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis 28 28 17 Party Conservative Party 52 30 52 Democrats for Social Credit 24 24 14 Green Party 61 61 59 Labour Party 81 70* 70 Libertarianz 27 27 9 Mana 23 20 21 Māori Party 20 17 11 National Party 75 75* 63 New Zealand First Party 33 33 32 United Future 20 17 20 Unregistered party and independent candidates 30 30 Total 544 471 453 * maximum number on the published list is 65 2.