The Australian Electoral Commission has declared activist group GetUp! is not associated with any political party, defying conservatives who argued it should be treated as an arm of Labor and the Greens.

The commission found GetUp!'s campaigns were primarily issue-based rather than linked to a particular party, and that its conduct on polling booths urging a vote for Labor or the Greens did not constitute a significant part of its overall activities.

GetUp campaigners and campaign director Miriam Lyons during last year's Wentworth byelection. Credit:AAP

GetUp!'s national director Paul Oosting said the commission's decision had "strongly rejected the push by the hard right faction of the Coalition to shut everyday people out of politics".

The AEC accepted that GetUp! how-to-vote cards distributed in some electorates at the 2016 election directed voters to preference Labor and the Greens, which could meet the criteria for being declared an "associated entity" of those parties.