Just 14 votes: New Zealand's lowest-polling candidate

According to the Not a Party's website this is Wellington Central candidate 'Bob' Wessex.

Spare a thought, or perhaps a congratulation, for New Zealand's least-voted-for candidate: Bob Wessex, who stood in Wellington Central this election.

Wessex attracted just 14 votes and it's hard to know if they'll be pleased with the result or not.

As a member of Not a Party - a party encouraging Kiwis not to cast a vote this election - 14 may actually be more votes than Wessex wanted.

Wessex has not responded to an interview request, but said on the party's internet profile page: "Luckily, you, the non-voters have realised that politicians are literally the floor. You have understood that we cannot fix a system that is rigged by both sides.

"The government, apparently, always wins. You the non-voters have understood that no one is going to do it for us. Nix. Nada. Not one. It is up to us, the people, who have built our communities with our own sweat and tears, often in spite of politicians.

"There is only us."

Much has been made of the low numbers the Act Party drew this election, with just 11,000 Kiwis giving Act 0.5 per cent of the party vote.

Those numbers look robust compared to the 55 local candidates around the country who managed to attract fewer than 100 votes each.

The electorate with the highest number of low-polling candidates was Tauranga, with five. Three failed to attract more than 40 votes.

Of the 55 candidates, 22 attracted fewer than 50 votes apiece - and four candidates received fewer than 30 votes each.

One of them was Simon Smythe in Rongotai, another Not a Party candidate.

The not-party's third and final candidate, Richard Goode, stood in the Mana electorate, attracting a comparatively healthy 76 votes.

On its website, Not a Party say they are encouraging low voter turnout in order to "hasten the inevitable end" of our "dying" democracy.

"We have no policies, so no broken electoral promises from us. Our personalities aren't popular either," the website reads.

Calling the election "mainstream media's personality popularity contest", Not a Party said more and more Kiwis were "wak[ing] up to the fact that the electoral process serves the status quo and not the people".

"Accordingly, we kindly urge you to not vote in the impending ballot. Instead, perhaps consider how you'd help to run your own local community if you weren't being taxed at every turn and told what to do by career politicians and corporate lobbyists in Wellington."

Not a Party had hoped to bring this year's voter turnout levels to a record low, however this year the Electoral commission reported 78.8 per cent of people voted and early voter turnout was record-breakingly high.

Not a Party has been approached for comment.

Stan Lusby, an independent candidate for Dunedin North, attracted just 29 votes but said he wasn't worried.

"I've been standing since 1984 and I stand for consensus democracy," he said.

Lusby thought MMP and the concept of party politics was undermining the true nature of democracy and used his position as a candidate to try and spread that message.

"How many did I get?," he asked the Herald, before laughing when told 29.

He'd hoped to crack 100 - the "monkey's paw" number which candidates started to snowball from, he said.