Claims circulating online that New Zealand Loyal leader Kelvyn Alp is ineligible to stand in the election are false.
Attorney General Judith Collins signed off on Alp’s bankruptcy as one of her final acts in office before fleeing politics to the Law Society.
It stemmed from a lawsuit over his false arrest. The presiding judge – a former senior police advisor – ruled that police can act on false information in their system without any duty to verify it, granting them full indemnity.
“The corrupt system protected its own. Justice was denied,” Alp said. “I am able to contest the 2026 Election, and I will deliver justice for all who have been wronged by the system.”
“Perhaps the New Nation Party should read the Electoral Act before publishing confident legal claims about it.”
Section 47(1) of the Electoral Act 1993 states that a person registered as an elector is qualified to stand as either an electorate or party-list candidate. Sections 47(2) and 47(3) add that the person must not be disqualified from electoral registration and must be a New Zealand citizen.
Section 80 then specifies the disqualifications from electoral registration.
Undischarged bankruptcy is not one of them.
The Act contains no provision disqualifying an undischarged bankrupt from standing for Parliament. The Electoral Commission likewise states that a candidate must be enrolled to vote and be a New Zealand citizen by the nomination deadline.
So the assertion that Kelvyn Alp “likely cannot stand” because he is bankrupt is not an interpretation of the legislation. It is simply made up.
This is elementary statutory checking. A political party making public claims about electoral law should perhaps bother to read the sections it invokes before lecturing anyone else about eligibility.
