Which political candidates got the lowest votes in election 2023?

More than two million people have cast their votes over the previous weeks with some candidates taking substantial chunks of votes for themselves.

But other, lesser-known candidates have not been so lucky, with a handful of people scraping together less than 50 votes.

The Herald crunched the numbers to reveal the candidates with the lowest votes nationwide.

Nathan Lee Couper - 16 votes

Couper stood in the Hamilton East electorate and appeared to be an independent candidate. His party, New World Order McCann party, was not registered, but has been in previous years.

Little is known about Couper and his party, but a Twitter profile purporting to be Couper stated New World Order McCann party stood for world peace.

The winning candidate in Couper’s electorate was National member Ryan Hamilton, and there were 10 candidates in total.

There were 29,631 votes cast in Hamilton East, of which Couper received 0.05 per cent.

Jacobus Gielen - 24 votes

Jack Gielen also ran for mayor of Hamilton last year.

Gielen, who received the second-lowest number of votes this year, also stood in Hamilton East, getting 0.08 per cent of the votes.

He stood under the banner of the Republic of New Zealand Party, an unregistered party which unsuccessfully stood in elections in the early 2000s.

In 2005, the Herald reported the party aimed to “cut all ties with the British monarchy and install a New Zealander as head of state. A president, elected at large by the citizens, would replace the Governor-General as a figurehead, with parliament continuing as normal.”

Gielen and another party member were investigated in 2010 after burning a New Zealand flag on Parliament grounds.

The pair also cut up photographs of then-Prime Minister John Key, Act leader Rodney Hide and former Prime Minister Helen Clark, whom they described as “anti-democratic”.

Gielen also unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Hamilton in last year’s local body elections.

Pete Bains - 25 votes

Running as an independent, Bains received the third-lowest number of votes nationwide in the Wellington Central electorate.

Of the 32,761 votes, he received 0.07 per cent, a significant way behind winner and Green Party candidate Tamatha Paul, who took out 12,630 votes. There were 11 candidates in total.

According to Policy NZ, Bains said he was “driven by a strong passion for making a positive difference, promoting equality and uplifting our community through social empowerment”.

He said he wanted New Zealand to be “equal, respectful, and have wellbeing for all”.

Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.