Signs of the 2011 general election are appearing throughout the Bay of Plenty with many political parties erecting campaign signs during the weekend.

With two months today until the general election political parties National, Labour and New Zealand First have all started to erect their electoral candidate and party signs throughout the region.

Signs of the 2011 general election are starting to show in Tauranga.

At the weekend National erected signs for three of their local candidates: Simon Bridges for Tauranga, Tony Ryall for the Bay of Plenty and Scott Simpson in the Coromandel.

National party Tauranga campaign chair Andrew von Dadelszen says this is the first wave of election signs to go out.

'We are putting out three different types of signs – this is the start for us, and there will be more going up. We will be evaluating where they go as we go along.”

Signs featuring Labour party candidates Deborah Mahuta Coyle for Tauranga, Hugh Kininmonth for Coromandel and Carol Devoy-Heena for Bay of Plenty have also been put up along the banks of the Bay of Plenty.

Deborah says adhering to the eight-week rule that allows political parties to start erecting campaign signage up to two months out from the general election, Labour started putting signs up around the electorate in the weekend.

'We put out party and electorate signs, about five on Saturday and then another 20 on Sunday.”

The New Zealand First candidates are Ray Dolman in Bay of Plenty, Brendan Horan for Tauranga and Kevin Stone for Coromandel.

A spokesperson for the NZ First office in Tauranga says the party campaigning is well underway with more signs set to be erected around Tauranga this morning.

Green Party candidate for Tauranga Ian McClean says the Green party has not put up any election signs due to a delay in the printing and delivery of the signs.

'We certainly will be putting up signs, we expect this will happen early next week.”

In addition to being the Green party candidate, Ian is also taking on the Bay of Plenty duties as the Green party does not have a candidate in the Bay of Plenty electorate.

'Our primary target is to get the party vote. We would prefer to have a candidate, but we have not found a suitable candidate.”

Ian joins Catherine Delahunty as the Green party candidate for Coromandel.

The deadline for political parties to bulk nominate their electorate candidates is October 31.

Individual nominations of electorate candidates and all list candidates must be submitted to the electoral commission by Tuesday, November 1.

The names of all electorate and list candidates will then be released by the Electoral Commission on Wednesday, November 2.