Internet Party will sit this election out in Hawke's Bay

Internet Party press secretary John Mitchell.

The Internet Party has confirmed it has no plans to field candidates in any Hawke's Bay electorate in this year's General Election.

Press secretary John Mitchell said that being a small, new party, Internet had settled on 15 candidates "where they are best able to stand".

The nearest electorates to Hawke's Bay being contested by the party in the election to be decided on September 20, are Palmerston North and East Coast.

He said East Coast candidate Patrick Salmon would "take some ownership" for the party's interest in the Hawke's Bay electorates of Napier and Tukituki where, as throughout the country, there will be an Internet-Mana option in the party vote.

With nominations not officially open until August 21, candidates named to contest the election in the two electorates, the Wairarapa electorate and in Maori seat Ikaroa Rawhiti yesterday remained confined mainly to the major parties.

As candidates begin preparing, campaigns are under way to try to ensure all eligible voters are on the rolls, with a particular focus on those who will have turned 18 since the last general election in 2011.

On Monday, it was estimated that more than 31 per cent of those eligible to vote in the 18-24 years bracket nationally were not on the rolls.

In the Napier electorate, which includes Wairoa, 21.8 per cent of the estimated 5940 eligible in that group were still not registered, and in Tukituki about 20.5 per cent of an estimated 6400 were still not enrolled, but in Wairarapa, which includes most of Central Hawke's Bay, just 6.3 per cent of the estimated 4649 eligible hadn't signed-up.

General elections are held in New Zealand every three years to select the country's Members of Parliament.