2014 Elections In New Zealand
The 2014 New Zealand general election took place on Saturday 20 September 2014 to determine the membership of the 51st New Zealand Parliament. Voters elected 121 members to the New Zealand House of Representatives, House of Representatives, with 71 from single-member electoral district, electorates (an increase from 70 in 2011) and 49 from Party lists in the 2014 New Zealand general election, party lists. Since 1996, New Zealand has used the Mixed-member proportional representation, Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) voting system, giving voters two votes: one for a political party and one for their local electorate MP. The party vote decides how many seats each party gets in the new Parliament; a party is entitled to a share of the seats if it receives 5% of the party vote or wins an electorate. Normally, the House has 120 seats but extra seats may be added where there is an Overhang seat, overhang, caused by a party winning more electorates than seats it is entitled to. The one-se ...
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Overhang Seat
Overhang seats are constituency seats won in an election under the traditional mixed member proportional (MMP) system (as it originated in Germany), when a party's share of the nationwide votes would entitle it to fewer seats than the number of individual constituencies won. How overhang seats arise Under MMP, a party is entitled to a number of seats based on its share of the total vote. If a party's share entitles it to ten seats and its candidates win seven constituencies, it will be awarded three list seats, bringing it up to its required number. This only works, however, if the party's seat entitlement is not less than the number of constituencies it has won. If, for example, a party is entitled to five seats, but wins six constituencies, the sixth constituency seat is referred to as an overhang seat. Overhang can result from an unproportional distribution of constituencies as well as strong region-based support or the existence of regional parties. Earning overhang seats ...
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