How we decide which parties are included
Arapono is non-partisan, and fairness has to be a rule anyone can check — not a judgement call. So here is exactly how we choose which parties appear, and how we handle the parts that polling can’t cover fairly.
Inclusion by registration, not polling
Any party registered with the Electoral Commission to contest the party vote is included, with a profile, policy coverage and an equal place in our comparisons. A party’s poll standing never decides whether it appears. That is the line that keeps us fair to smaller and newer parties.
Equal in structure, neutral in order
Every contesting party gets the same sections and the same treatment. We group parties by whether they currently hold seats, which is a plain fact rather than a ranking, and order the rest alphabetically instead of by size or polling. Where a party hasn’t published a position on a topic, we say so honestly rather than leaving them out.
Polls are labelled, never inferred
Published polls only survey the larger parties, so poll-of-polls, the seat projection and the coalition explorer can only show those. We label this limit plainly, group smaller parties as “Others”, and note where the 5% threshold excludes a contesting party. We never invent a number for a party polls don’t measure, and we never present polling as a prediction.
Sourced, or marked as a gap
A party’s stated positions are summarised only from what they have actually published, with the source linked and an editor check before it appears. If we don’t yet have something, the page says “not recorded yet”. We don’t fill gaps with assumptions.
The parties we include right now
Drawn from the Electoral Commission’s register of parties. The final list contesting 2026 is confirmed when nominations close, and we update this then.