Election Access Fund – Applications welcome

A new Fund has been established, called the Election Access Fund Te Tomokanga — Pūtea Whakatapoko Pōtitanga, to support disabled people to stand as candidates in parliamentary general elections and by-elections.

The purpose of the Fund is to reduce cost barriers faced by disabled people by covering disability-related costs which non-disabled candidates do not face. The Fund covers both seeking selection to be a candidate, and campaigning as a candidate.

The Fund will enable the Commission to pay for additional costs that candidates incur as a result of their disability when organising and preparing to stand for Parliamentary elections.

The Fund does not cover local body elections.

The Electoral Commission’s role

The Election Access Fund Act 2020 tasks the Electoral Commission with setting up and running the Fund. 

The Commission has designed how the Fund will work in consultation with disabled people, disabled people’s organisations, political parties, and other interested people and organisations. We received feedback on who should be able to apply to the Fund, the types of things it could cover and how it could work. This feedback helped to inform the design and these guidelines. 

There will be $1m in the Fund for people to apply to use. 

Applying to the Election Access Fund

If you are interested in applying to the Election Access Fund or want to know more, you can visit the following pages, or get in touch. You can either apply online, or download and fill out an application.

Email electionaccessfund@elections.govt.nz or call 0800 36 76 56. 


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