Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown has enticed three elected independent parliamentarians to join the Cook Islands Party in government.

Mr Brown's ruling party has retained its 12 seats to again earn the right to form government in the unicameral parliament following the Pacific nation's general election last Wednesday.

The Cook Islands Party-run government was able to increase its majority by gaining the support of at least one additional independent from the 2022 election.

The support ensures Mr Brown reigns for a fifth consecutive term on behalf of the self-governing state which holds free association with Aotearoa / New Zealand.

Independents Agnes Armstrong, Rimmel Poila-Mokoroa and Tetangi Matapo, all from Mangaia — the second largest island of the Cooks — will sit with Cook Islands Party MPs.

The Cook Islands Party still remains in talks with other elected MPs, including five other independents, in pursuit of an absolute two-thirds supermajority in the Kuki 'Airani legislative assembly.

The significance of gaining 16 of the house's 24 seats is particularly important as the Cook Islands' own constitution requires a supermajority for any constitutional change under the key provision of Article 41.

Senior Cook Islands MP and cabinet minister, Vaine Mokoroa, who retained his Nikao-Panama seat for a third term, said the independent Mangaia members held a Zoom meeting with party president Henry Puna and Mr Brown the day after the vote to articulate their position on forming government.

"They have all agreed to join the government of the day," Mr Mokoroa, husband of Ms Poila-Mokoroa, told the Cook Islands News.

"This process and negotiation had been facilitated through the endorsement and the grace of Numangatini Ariki.

"All independents are in need of change and progress on their island, hence the reason they decided to stand as independent (but) move into government."

Numangatini Tangitamaiti Tereapii Ariki, the paramount traditional chief/king of Mangaia supported the move.

Numangatini Ariki is the title of one of the traditional ariki lines of Mangaia.

"They've agreed to work together; the three of them because Mangaia has been out of government for some time," he said.

"The main reason is to have Mangaia sitting at that table where the decisions are made.

"We can't sit outside - it's been too long that we've been sitting outside."

Ms Armstrong, who retained her seat of Ivirua unopposed, confirmed the three independents on the southern island agreed to join forces and side with the Cook Islands Party.

"That's our consensus with our committees and the people behind us - that we all work together as one for the betterment of the island and our individual constituencies," she said.

The Cook Islands Party lost the decisive Pukapuka-Nassau seat where the incumbent, Tingika Elikana, fell to independent candidate, Dr Kirianu Nio, by just three votes.

But the incumbent government gained the Rakahanga seat — also by three votes — from Democratic Party leader, Tina Browne, after Levi Hitarahera Teinaki readdressed the balance.

The Democratic Party was, in fact, wiped out at the general election for the first time in its 54-year history.

The centrist party lost all of its five seats after it was the previous parliament's chief opposing voice.

The Cook Islands United Party gained one seat to capture four overall, and the centre-left party will now be the nominal party of opposition.

There are just 11,189 registered voters across the Cook Islands. Voting numbers across some geographical seats fluctuating hugely, creating razor-thin margins which historically are not that uncommon.