A quick guide to Saturday’s referendum on voting systems #votenz

This Saturday you don’t just get to vote, you get to decide how we vote in future. You basically get four boxes to tick on Saturday, a party vote, an electorate vote, a vote to say YES or NO to keep the MMP voting system and which system should replace it, if indeed it should be replaced.

Below is a very broad overview of the voting systems, I am not an expert just want New Zealanders to be more informed about their options. In the interest of full disclosure I will admit I’m still unsure which way I will vote on this issue. But I will probably vote AGAINST keeping MMP so at least if it stays it will be given a thorough review.

MMP – Mixed Member Proportional

The system we have now where every citizen has two votes. Government is made up of 120 people, 70 of those are represent electorates (the area you live in) and the other 50 are made up from party votes. Under this system the government is often formed by coalitions (where a two or more parties agree to work together). This can be really good if you want minor parties to have more power. Unfortunately there are a few flaws in MMP, and if we keep this system those will be reviewed and hopefully fixed.

FPP – First Past the Post

This is the system New Zealand used to have, back in the days when the government swung between Labour and National. There are still 120 people in parliament but they are all representing electorates (so these are divided into smaller areas than under MMP). Because there is just often one party in charge they have a lot more power and can pass laws much faster without the need for debate and negotiation.

PV – Preferential Voting

This is the system which Australia has. Again there are 120 people in parliament, each one is voted in to represent an electorate. The difference is you rank the candidates you like. It’s a bit complicated, which means people have to do a lot more research about candidates before voting. Basically if the first person you vote for is declared the loser in your electorate they drop out of the race and your vote goes to the second person on your list. And so on and so on until someone has the majority of votes. People in Australia tend to either vote for personalities they like or just which ever candidate their preferred party tells them to vote for. It can produce majority governments or coalitions.

STV – Single Transferable Vote

This is a bit like the Preferential Voting system but with more people for each electorate. So there would still be 120 members in parliament, but only 24-30 electorates. So you might pick 3-4 people to represent the area you live in. Again you rank the candidates in the order in which you like them and the most popular members would be elected, a bit like how we elect members of local council. Under this system minor parties and independents have a good chance of getting in and coalitions would generally be required to form a government.

SM – Supplementary Member

This system is a bit like our current voting system, MMP, but with a lower number of list MPs. So out of the 120 people in parliament 90 would be elected to represent electorates and 30 would be made up by party votes. The other main difference is a minor party would not need over 5% to get list MPs in on party votes like they do currently. Everyone is represented how the public votes for them. So if a minor party won just over 3.5% of the party votes they would be allowed 3.5% of the party seats, which according to my math would be one seat in parliament.

To find out more go to referendum.org.nz and do their quiz. This is written to be a very basic overview, but if it’s sparked your interest there are more in depth summaries around including this paper from Maxim Institute.