Now it's the Kiwis Turn!

Tomorrow is Election Day here in New Zealand! Chris has been walking around talking about all things Green (being a Green Party supporter), and while I was sitting here Wednesday waiting for polls on the East Coast of the US to close, Chris was off attending a lunch for Green supporters to talk about what the party was aiming to do after this election.

All the election fever has caused a good many interesting discussions between Chris and I about the differences in the election process of each country. I find New Zealand's method of doing things fascinating. Here's a rundown of how this country decides its leaders:

New Zealand uses something called MMP (Mixed Member Proportional) voting. Each person has 2 votes. One vote is the electorate vote--the person who will represent your region (similar to districts in the US). The second vote is the party vote. That's the one that all the political parties court you for, they want that party vote, since the number of party votes they get across the country is directly proportional to the percentage of seats they will control in the House of Representatives (informally also called Parliament). In other words, each electorate votes to decide who will represent them in the House, and the rest of the seats are determined by the party vote.

Those that run for the electorate seat can be of any party (or even no party at all!). So how do the parties decide who will fill the allotted seats that are won in the party vote? They have a party list, which lists the order in which the party will fill the rest of the seats in. The highest slots on the list are as you can imagine, pretty sought after within each party. Each party has their own way of determining the listing order, but it is usually voted on by all its members.

A party has to receive either 5% of the party vote, or at least have one member win his/her electorate seat in order to receive any seats in Parliament at all. The New Zealand House of Reps has 120 seats total (much smaller than the House in the US). Every New Zealander who is eligible to vote MUST register, it's the law! However, the law doesn't require you vote, unlike say....Australia! Still, it is highly encouraged that you vote, and in general voter turnout is really good, the 2005 election had about 81% of eligible voters cast their vote!

Once the election happens and the votes are tallied, the fun begins! Since typically no one party gets 50% of the party vote, the race is on to negotiate an alliance with the smaller parties to make up the majority. This usually involves the two biggest parties in NZ politics (Labour and National) trying to one up each other in order to convince smaller parties (like Green, Maori, Act, NZ First, etc...) that they will provide a better fit for the policies of the party in question. Kind of like, if you join up with us, we'll make it worth your while...;-P This allows the smaller parties to have their voice heard and their main party issues given more consideration by the larger ones, which leads to a more diverse government that is a bit more representative of the vast array of political opinions of New Zealand citizens.

Once a coalition that totals more than 50% of the vote is formed, that's it! The government is then established by the ruling group and they dictate who the cabinet will be, and most importantly, who will be the Prime Minister. Usually the Prime Minister comes from the largest party within the coalition (in other words, from either Labour or National).

Labour is more left wing and National tends to be more right wing, although there have been historical occasions when each of those parties has stepped outside of such labels. Regardless of that, National is still not as conservative as say the Republican party in the US! The more extreme ends of the spectrum are occupied by some of the much smaller parties.

So there you have it! It's a bit more detailed than that, but at least you have the general idea. And if you're an American and reading this post, now you can give yourself props for knowing the election process of another country!! Because lets face it, while the world seems to watch ours, most of us don't pay much attention to the elections of other countries...but we should.