Cook Islands Party

Cook Islands Party
Leader	Henry Puna
Founded	1964
Ideology	Nationalism
Seats in the Cook Islands Parliament	15 / 24

The Cook Islands Party is a nationalist political party in the Cook Islands. It was the first political party founded in the Cook Islands, and one of the two major parties of the islands' politics since 1965.

From 1999 until 2005 it sometimes participated in coalition governments. In the 2006 elections, it came runner-up and largest opposition party in the islands. The party won both the 2010 and 2014 elections and currently forms the government. The leader of the party is the Prime Minister Henry Puna.

The Cook Islands Party was established on 15 June 1964 by Albert Henry, a former leader of the Cook Islands Progressive Association, who had agitated for greater self-rule in the 1940s. The party was founded on a platform of economic development, maintaining ties with New Zealand, the protection of traditional Cook Islands culture and increased recognition of traditional titles. Within a month of foundation, the party had gained over 2,000 members on Rarotonga.

Prior to independence, the party campaigned for the residential qualification for candidates to the Legislative Assembly to be reduced, in order to allow Henry to stand. They were unsuccessful, and as a result Henry was replaced at the 1965 elections by his sister, Marguerite Story. The party won a strong majority of 14 seats, which they used to amend the constitution to reduce the residency requirement. Following the passage of the necessary legislation by the New Zealand Parliament, Story resigned. Henry was elected in the subsequent by-election, and became the first Prime Minister of the Cook Islands.

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