Electoral reform in New Zealand

rdf:langString Electoral reform in New Zealand

rdf:langString right

rdf:langString Alan Renwick

rdf:langString It was the combination of growing public anger with the operation of the political system and the successful efforts of the Electoral Reform Coalition to harness that dissatisfaction in the cause of electoral reform that proved crucial. [...] Politicians subsequently acquiesced as they lost control of the referendum process because to have done otherwise would have courted the full wrath of a public incensed by their own impotence in the face of years of broken promises.

rdf:langString The Politics of Electoral Reform: Changing the Rules of Democracy.

rdf:langString Electoral reform in New Zealand has, in recent years, become a political issue as major changes have been made to both parliamentary and local government electoral systems. National elections in New Zealand were first held in 1853 using the basic first-past-the-post (FPP) voting system and conducted over a period of two and a half months. At this time, the country was divided into 23 electorates who elected either a single member or three members (MPs) depending on the population within that area. In the multiple-seat districts, Multiple non-transferable vote (AKA Block voting) was used. This basic system continued over a great period of time, with major diversions only in the form of the change to the second ballot system (a type of two-round system) for two elections, in the 1908 election and 1911 election, which was swiftly repealed in 1913, and the change to the mixed-member proportional (MMP) system in 1996. MMP is a system of proportional representation in which there is a mix of electorate MPs and list MPs. Following the introduction of proportional representation more minor parties entered Parliament, and coalition governments became the norm.