Now for the result of the really important election

perseus

perseus

Active member
New Zealand opposition wins vote

New Zealand's opposition National Party has swept to power, ending PM Helen Clark's nine-year Labour government.


The centre-right opposition won 45% of the vote, against 34% for Labour, leaving it just short of an overall majority.
It will be able to govern with the help of two smaller parties - the United Future and ACT parties - and will also look for support to the Maori Party.

Since the country introduced proportional voting in 1996, neither of the big parties has won an outright majority and they have always relied on the support of minor parties.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7717014.stm

See what happens with a proportional representation system. No-one really has total power. Perhaps not a bad thing in this case :) (Sorry Monty)
 
perseus said:
New Zealand opposition wins vote

New Zealand's opposition National Party has swept to power, ending PM Helen Clark's nine-year Labour government.


The centre-right opposition won 45% of the vote, against 34% for Labour, leaving it just short of an overall majority.
It will be able to govern with the help of two smaller parties - the United Future and ACT parties - and will also look for support to the Maori Party.

Since the country introduced proportional voting in 1996, neither of the big parties has won an outright majority and they have always relied on the support of minor parties.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7717014.stm

See what happens with a proportional representation system. No-one really has total power. Perhaps not a bad thing in this case :) (Sorry Monty)
Click to expand...

You know the funny thing, it doesn't actually matter who wins in a New Zealand election as both major parties are equally incompetent and the minor parties are similar to a traveling road show of clowns.

To indicate how silly it is National will require the support of the Maori party to form a government but the National Party campaigned on getting rid of the Maori seats during their first term in power.

So here is my prediction for the next 3 years, a bunch of Labour policies (that were renamed National policies) will be renamed again to National Policies and everything will carry on as normal.

The sooner we get rid of MMP the better.
 
perseus said:
There is a whole Wiki Article on this, sure everyone will be fascinated:sleep:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_reform_in_New_Zealand
Click to expand...

Here is the weakness in this system...

"particularly with New Zealand's unique provision for parties to win list seats despite getting less than the 5% threshold if they win one local seat".

Basically if you get 1 person elected you end up with 5-7 seats in parliament even if your party gets 1-2% of the vote, it is a ludicrous system of government that leads to ineffective government.
 
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