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Members of New Zealand 's House Of Representatives , commonly called " Parliament ", normally gain their seats in nationwide general Election s, or (less frequently) in By-election s. General elections normally occur at least every three years in New Zealand, and operate using the Mixed Member Proportional Electoral System . The Chief Electoral Office and the Electoral Commission co-ordinate the electoral system. OVERVIEW OF ELECTIONS Voting New Zealand general elections occur when the Prime Minister requests a dissolution of Parliament and therefore a general election. Theoretically, this can happen at any time, although a convention exists whereby Prime Ministers do not call elections unless they have no reasonable alternative. Elections always take place on a Saturday, so as to minimise work commitments inhibiting people from voting. Voting (the casting of ballots) happens at various Polling Station s, generally established in schools, churches, or other such public places. The 2005 election made use of 6,094 such polling stations. The voting process uses printed voting ballots, with voters marking their choices (one vote for a candidate and one vote for a party — see Electoral System Of New Zealand ) with an ink pen provided for their use. The voter then places the voting paper in a sealed Ballot Box . Voters can alternatively cast "special votes" if genuinely unable to attend a regular polling place (for example, the they have travelled overseas, or have impaired mobility). Timing of elections Prime Ministers have adhered to the three-year cycle with almost scrupulous regularity. Delayed elections last occurred in 1936 (due to the economic depression) and in 1943 (due to World War II). Notably early elections took place most recently in 1951 (after the Waterfront Strike). The elections of 1984 and of 2002 occurred a few months early in periods of governmental instability or potential instability. Tradition associates elections with November - give or take a few weeks. After disruptions to the 36-month cycle, Prime Ministers tend to strive to restore it to a November base. The electoral roll The Electoral Roll consists of a register of all eligible voters, organised alphabetically by surname within electorates. All persons who meet the requirements for voting must by law register on the electoral roll, even if they do not intend to vote. The roll records the name and address of all voters, although one can apply for "unpublished" status on the roll in special circumstances, such as when having one's details printed in the electoral roll could threaten one's Personal Safety . Electorates New Zealanders refer to voting districts as " Electorates ", or as "seats". New Zealand Currently has sixty-nine electorates (including seven Maori Electorates specially set up for people of Maori ethnicity or ancestry who choose to place themselves on a separate electoral roll). All electorates have roughly the same number of people in them — the Representation Commission periodically reviews and alters electorate boundaries to preserve this approximate balance. The number of people in each electorate depends on geography — the South Island , the less populous of the country's two main islands, has 16 guaranteed electorates, and so the number of people per electorate equals the population of the South Island divided by 16. From this, the Commission determines the number of North Island and Maori seats, which may fluctuate accordingly. Vote counting and announcement Polling Places close at 7.00pm on election day. The process of the counting of the votes by polling officials then begins. Results (at this stage provisional ones) go to a central office in the capital, Wellington , for announcement as they arrive. In recent years, a dedicated official website, " www.electionresults.govt.nz " has provided live election-result updates. Electoral officers generally complete the provisonal counting of ordinary votes on the night of the election, but counting of special votes (see "Voting") can take longer, occasionally producing surprise upsets. The final results of the election become official when confirmed by the Chief Electoral Officer. HISTORY OF VOTING IN NEW ZEALAND The New Zealand Constitution Act The first national elections in New Zealand took place in 1853 , the year after the British government passed the New Zealand Constitution Act. This measure granted limited self-rule to the settlers in New Zealand, who had grown increasingly frustrated with the colonial authorities (and particularly with the nearly unlimited power of the Governor ). The Constitution Act established a Bicameral parliament, with the lower house (the House of Representatives) elected every five years. Initially, the system set standards for suffrage relatively high. To vote, one needed to fall into all of the following categories:
In theory, this would have allowed Maori men to vote, but electoral regulations excluded communally-held land from counting towards the property qualification (quite a common restriction in electoral systems of the time). As such, many Maori (most of whom lived in accordance with traditional customs of land-ownership) could not vote. Historians debate whether or not the system deliberately excluded Maori in this way, but neither settlers nor Maori appeared to worry unduly about the issue; settlers saw the "uncivilized" Maori as a potential voting bloc with the numerical strength to outvote Europeans; while Maori had little interest in a "settler parliament" that they saw as having little relevance to them. Despite the exclusion of Maori and of women, New Zealand's voting franchise appeared highly liberal when compared to that of many other countries at the time. At the time of the passing of the Constitution Act, an estimated three-quarters of the adult male European population in New Zealand had the right to vote. This contrasts with the situation in Britain, where the equivalent figure approximated to a fifth of the adult male population. Goldminers and the vote In 1860 the franchise system extended slightly, waiving the property qualification for anyone who possessed a miner's licence. This aimed to enfranchise participants in the Central Otago Goldrush , who often did not own valuable land but who nevertheless ranked as "important" economically and socially. The Maori seats 1867 saw the establisment of four Maori Seats , enabling Maori to vote without needing to meet the property requirements. Supporters of this change intended the measure as a temporary solution, as a general belief existed that Maori would soon abandon traditional customs governing land-ownership. Soon, however, the seats became an electoral fixture. While some have seen the establishment of Maori seats as an example of progressive legislation, the effect did not always prove as satisfactory as expected. While the seats did increase Maori participation in politics, the relative size of the Maori population of the time ''vis à vis'' Pakeha would have warranted approximately 15 seats, not four. Because Maori could vote only in Maori seats, and the number of Maori seats remained fixed for over a century, Maori stayed effectively locked into under-representation for decades. The secret ballot Initially, voters informed a polling officer orally of their chosen candidate. In 1870 , the Secret Ballot came into use, whereby each voter would mark their choice on a printed ballot and place the ballot in a sealed box. (This system essentially continues in use today.) The change occurred to reduce the chances of voters feeling intimidated, embarrassed, or pressured about their vote, and to reduce the chances of corruption. Abolition of the property requirement After considerable controversy, Parliament decided in 1879 to remove the requirement of property ownership. This allowed anyone who met the other qualifications to participate in the electoral process. As the restrictions on suffrage in New Zealand excluded fewer voters than in many other countries, this change did not have the same effect as it would have had in (for example) Britain, but it nevertheless proved significant. In particular, it eventually gave rise to " Working Class " politicians, and eventually (in 1916 ) to the Labour Party . Women's suffrage New Zealand women finally gained the right to vote with the passage of a bill by the Legislative Council in 1893 . The House of Representatives (then the elected lower house) had passed such a bill several times previously, but for the first time in 1893 the appointed Legislative Council did not block it. The growth of women's suffrage in New Zealand largely resulted from the broad political movement led by Kate Sheppard , the country's most famous Suffragette . Inside parliament, politicians such as John Hall , Robert Stout , Julius Vogel , William Fox , and John Ballance supported the movement. When Ballance became Premier in 1891 and established/consolidated the Liberal Party , many believed that female suffrage would ensue imminently, but attempts to pass a suffrage bill repeatedly met with blocks in the Legislative Council, which Ballance's outgoing predecessor, Harry Atkinson , had stacked with Conservative politicians. When Ballance suddenly died in office (27 April 1893), Richard Seddon replaced him as Premier. Seddon, though a member of Ballance's Liberal Party, opposed women's suffrage, which thus suffered an apparent setback as a cause. Despite Seddon's opposition, Members of Parliament assembled sufficient strength in the House of Representatives to pass the bill. When it arrived in the Legislative Council, several previously hostile members, moved to anger at Seddon's "underhand" behaviour while opposing the bill, voted in favour. This support sufficed to pass the bill, which the Royal Assent signed into law on 19 September 1893. In the election later that year, women voted freely. New Zealand claims to have become the first country in the world to have granted women's suffrage, although the accuracy of this claim depends on the definitions used - see Women's Suffrage . Lowering the voting age For most of New Zealand's early history, voters needed to have attained at least 21 years of age in order to vote. At times, regulations temporarily extended voting rights to people younger than this, such as in World War I and World War II (where serving military personnel could vote regardless of age). Later, Parliament reduced the voting age further; in 1969 to 20 years of age, and in 1974 to 18. This extension of the franchise occurred in part in an atmosphere of increased student interest in politics due to the Vietnam War protests. Overseas Voting The Electoral Act 1956 allowed New Zealanders to vote from overseas: it functioned predominately as a consolidatory and simplfying act. During both world wars, military personnel serving overseas had been able to vote, but prior to 1956 civilians could not vote from overseas. Abolition of the citizenship requirement In 1975 Parliament extended the voting franchise to all permanent residents of New Zealand, regardless of whether or not they possessed citizenship. One cannot, however, gain election to parliament unless one holds New Zealand citizenship. (One party-list candidate in the 2002 Election could not assume her position as a member of parliament because she did not meet that criterion.) The switch to MMP ] Apart from a brief period from 1908 to 1913 , when elections used Runoff Voting , New Zealand used the First-past-the-post electoral system until 1996. Gradually, single-member electorates replaced multi-member electorates in urban areas, and single-member first-past-the-post electorates became the norm for most of the 20th Century . Towards the end of the 20th Century , however, voter dissatisfaction with the political process increased. In particular, the 1978 Election and the 1981 Election both delivered outcomes that many deemed unsatisfactory; the opposition Labour Party won the highest number of votes, but Robert Muldoon 's governing National Party won more seats. This sort of perceived anomaly occurred as a direct result of the first-past-the-post electoral system. Subsequently, voter discontent grew even greater when many citizens perceived both Labour and National to have broken their election promises by implementing the policies of " Rogernomics ". This left many people wanting to support alternative parties, but the electoral system made it difficult for smaller parties to realistically compete with either of the two large ones — for example, the Social Credit Party had gained 21% of the vote in 1981 , but received only two seats. In response to public anger, the Labour Party established a Royal Commission On The Electoral System , which delivered its results in 1986 . Both Labour and National had expected the Commission to propose only minor reforms, but instead it recommended the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) system already used in Germany . Neither Labour nor National supported this idea, and National chose to embarrass Labour by pointing out their lack of enthusiasm for their own Commission's report. National, attempting to seize the upper ground, promised a referendum on the matter. Labour, unwilling to see itself outdone, promised the same. In this manner, both parties committed to a holding a referendum on a policy that neither supported. When National won the next election, it agreed (under pressure from voters) to hold the promised referendum. This began the process of New Zealand Electoral Reform , which eventually resulted in the adoption of MMP. The first MMP Election took place in 1996 . Disproportionality as measured by the Gallagher Index has fallen sharply, from an average of 11.10% in the period between 1946 and 1993 to just 1.11% in 2005 . RESULTS General elections The following table lists all previous general elections in New Zealand (note that elections for Maori seats initially took place at different times from elections for general seats). The table displays the dates of the elections, the officially recorded voter turnout, and the number of seats in Parliament at the time. On the right the table shows the number of seats won by the four most significant parties in New Zealand's history (the Liberal Party and the Reform Party , which later merged to form the National Party , and the Labour Party ), as well as the number won by other candidates (either independents or members of smaller political parties).
By-elections See New Zealand By-elections . SEE ALSO
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