6 political parties registered for Saskatchewan election

Two political parties have seats in Saskatchewan's legislative assembly the Saskatchewan Party and the New Democratic Party of Saskatchewan but there are a total of six political parties registered in the province.

Two of those four plan to run a full slate of 61 candidates the Green Party of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Liberals.

• Use Vote Compass to compare the party platforms ahead of Saskatchewan's election

• Saskatchewan's election officially gets underway today

• More ways to vote in Sask.'s 2016 provincial campaign

• Saskatchewan election 2016: What you need to know

Greens have full slate

In fact, the Green Party has had 61 candidates nominated since the summer of 2014, after spending nearly half of the 2011 campaign nominating a full slate of candidates for the first time in the party's history.

"We determined that we didn't want to go through that, kind of, nightmare process again," says Victor Lau, the Green Party's leader.

"And so this time we've been nominating candidates all along the way."

Lau says half of those candidates are women. "It's part of our principles, the idea of gender balance, in government and as well in the party."

Lau says it's important to him that not only can any Saskatchewan voter choose to cast a ballot for the Greens, but that the Green Party could form government if enough voters chose it.

All our candidates believe they'll win: Liberals

That is alsothe goal for the leader of the Saskatchewan Liberals, Darrin Lamoureux.

"The definition of success is to form government," said Lamoureux. "We have 61 candidates that believe they're going to win each riding."

PCs hoping to return to legislature

The Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan has 10 confirmed candidates and expects to add more until the deadline of Mar. 19.

Its leader's pitch is for voters to elect some PC MLAs to sit among the opposition in the Legislature.

"We understand clearly that you can't have a good government unless you have a good opposition," said Rick Swenson.

Swenson notes the party's work in bringing forward issues from farmland ownership, in the wake of a purchase of land by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, to questions about the Regina bypass.

"You've seen a very aggressive PC Party of Saskatchewan doing the public's work," said Swenson. "We see that as our role after the next election, is to get back in the House and continue with that."

Swenson notes his party will have more money for this campaigncompared tothe last one. The party regained control of a trust fund and Swenson says it will be running paid advertisements for the first time since 1995.

Western Independence also in race

The other party that has official status with Elections Saskatchewan is the Western Independence Party.

The party, whose goal is to have Saskatchewan separate from the rest of the country, does not yet have any potential candidates listed on the Elections Saskatchewan website for this campaign.

Candidates may also choose to run as "independents" in any constituency. There is one potential Independent candidate set to run in the constituency of Regina Coronation Park.