The Northcote seat is vacant after the resignation of National MP Jonathan Coleman, who has left to take up a job in the private health sector.

National and Labour have announced a shortlist of candidates to represent their parties Auckland's Northcote by-election in June.

North Shore ward councillor Richard Hills is on the list, up against Shanan Halbert, who represented Labour in Northcote in the 2017 general election.

Labour general secretary Andrew Kirton made the announcement via Twitter last night.

LAINE MOGER/STUFF Auckland councillor Richard Hills is one of three Labour candidates contesting for Northcote electorate.

"Shanan Halbert, Richard Hills and Paul McGreal will contest the candidacy at a selection meeting this Sunday afternoon," the Tweet said.

READ MORE:

* Northcote by-election date announced

* National's Jonathan Coleman calls time on Parliament, sparking a by-election in Northcote

The Auckland seat is vacant after the resignation of National MP Jonathan Coleman, who has left to take up a job in the private health sector.

JODI YEATS/STUFF Labour's Shanan Halbert, ran against National's Jonathan Coleman in last year's general election. Halbert is now contesting candidacy again.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the date of the by-election as June 9, and the Electoral Commission has begun preparations.

Halbert, ran against Coleman in last year's general election. Despite losing by 6200 votes, he narrowed the 9700 majority Coleman had in 2014.

Halbert told Stuff earlier he was confident of becoming the party's candidate again.

Councillor Hills was ranked top candidate for the Kaipātiki Local Board, with 13,026 votes, in the 2016 local board elections.

However, after narrowly beating Grant Gillon, he was sworn in as North Shore ward councillor in November. He has been in the role since.

National's Paula Bennett also confirmed the shortlist of candidates: economist Dan Bidois, Kaipātiki Local Board deputy chairwoman Danielle Grant, Darren Ward, and Upper Habour Local Board members Lisa Whyte and Simon Watts.

Nominees have been asked not to speak publicly so as to respect the ability of local members to decide in a fair contest, Kirton said.

The Northcote electorate includes the suburbs of Northcote, Birkenhead, Beach Haven, Hillcrest and parts of Glenfield.

In a by-election, people have only one vote - for their electorate MP. There is no party vote, said Anita Balakrishnan, national manager of voting services for the Electoral Commission.

Nominations for the Northcote by-election closed April 10 at 5pm.

The candidate for each party will be announced on Sunday. The party process of selecting a candidate is separate to the official nomination ballot paper.

The formal date for that, as per the Electoral Commission, is May 8.

More information about enrolling and voting is available from elections.org.nz.