|
New Zealand General Election, 1996
The 1996 New Zealand general election was held on 12 October 1996 to determine the composition of the 45th New Zealand Parliament. It was notable for being the first election to be held under the new mixed-member proportional (MMP) electoral system, and produced a parliament considerably more diverse than previous elections. It saw the National Party, led by Jim Bolger, retain its position in government, but only after protracted negotiations with the smaller New Zealand First party to form a coalition. New Zealand First won a large number of seats—including every Māori electorate, traditionally held by Labour. Its position as " kingmaker", able to place either of the two major parties into government, was a significant election outcome. Under the new MMP system, 65 members were elected in single-member districts by first-past-the-post voting, while a further 55 "top-up" members were allocated from closed lists to achieve a proportional distribution based on each party's sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand House Of Representatives
The House of Representatives is the sole chamber of the New Zealand Parliament. The House passes laws, provides ministers to form Cabinet, and supervises the work of government. It is also responsible for adopting the state's budgets and approving the state's accounts. The House of Representatives is a democratic body consisting of representatives known as members of parliament (MPs). There are normally 120 MPs, though this number can be higher if there is an overhang. Elections take place usually every three years using a mixed-member proportional representation system which combines first-past-the-post elected seats with closed party lists. 72 MPs are elected directly in single-member electoral districts and further seats are filled by list MPs based on each party's share of the party vote. A government may be formed from the party or coalition that has the support of a majority of MPs. If no majority is possible, a minority government can be formed with a confide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electoral System Of New Zealand
The New Zealand electoral system has been mixed-member proportional (MMP) since the 1996 election. MMP was introduced following a referendum in 1993. It replaced the first-past-the-post (FPP) system New Zealand had previously used for most of its history. New Zealanders elect their members of parliament (MPs) with two votes. The first vote is for a candidate from an electorate (electoral district). The second vote is used to elect ranked party lists. New Zealand has a single-house legislature, the House of Representatives, usually with 120 members, although the number can increase because of (generally) one or two overhang seats, depending on the outcome of the electoral process. The 53rd Parliament, elected in 2020, has 120 seats: 72 were filled by electorate MPs, with the remaining 48 filled by list MPs according to each party's share of the vote. New elections are held for the New Zealand Parliament every three years. In 1893, New Zealand was the first country in the w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ross Meurant
Alan Ross Meurant (born 26 August 1947) is a New Zealand public figure, now Honorary Consul for Morocco, who has at various times gained public attention as a police officer, businessman, politician, and political lobbyist. Early life and family Meurant was born on 26 August 1947 at Te Kōpuru, the son of Rae-Ola Dalice Meurant (née Olsen) and Edward Alan Meurant. He was educated at Dargaville High School. In 1973, he married Patricia Ann Lewis, and the couple had two children before separating. Police Meurant served in the New Zealand Police between 1966 and 1987. In 1975 he was promoted to Sergeant at Takapuna on the North Shore, married Patricia and purchased a home. He had his first pangs to be a Member of Parliament, and as he decided he needed more education to enter political life he enrolled for a BA degree intending to major in political studies. After 2½ years he went back to Auckland Central as Senior Sergeant. He spent eight years at the University of Auckland, fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christian Democrat Party (New Zealand)
The Christian Democrat Party of New Zealand was a Christian socially conservative political party established in 1995. It contested the 1996 general election as part of the Christian Coalition with the Christian Heritage Party. It changed its name to Future New Zealand in 1998 and contested the 1999 election. It formed a coalition with the United Party as United Future New Zealand in 2000 and contested the 2002 election. The coalition became a full merger the following year. Founding and Christian Coalition The Christian Democrats were founded by Graeme Lee, a National Party MP. Lee had a reputation as one of the more conservative MPs in Parliament, and was particularly active in opposing Fran Wilde's homosexual law reform bill. When the Christian Heritage Party, a strongly conservative group, was established, Lee initially rejected it, believing that it was better to work from within the National Party. Later, however, when he lost his ministerial rank in a Cabinet r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand Conservative Party
The New Zealand Conservative Party (originally known as Right of Centre) was a short-lived political party in New Zealand. It was founded by a dissident National Party MP, Ross Meurant. Foundation Meurant had led the New Zealand Police's high-profile "Red Squad" during the controversial 1981 Springbok Tour. He became a National Party MP in 1987 and won re-election as such in 1990 and in 1993. Meurant often clashed with the leadership of the National Party over Maori policy, and was regarded as one of the leading dissidents within the National caucus at the time. Eventually, in September 1994, Meurant decided to break away from National and to establish his own party, adopting the name "Right of Centre" (or "ROC"). The acronym represented Meurant's right-wing economic philosophy of privatisation of government assets. The new party was originally conceived by former National MPs Rob Munro (formerly a lieutenant-colonel in the New Zealand Army), lawyer Graham Reeves, and Meur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United New Zealand
United New Zealand was a centrist political party in New Zealand founded in 1995. It merged with the Christian-based Future New Zealand party to form the United Future New Zealand party in 2000. History Formation United was founded on 28 June 1995, one of a number of new parties hoping to capitalise on the upcoming switch to the MMP electoral system. It was intended to be a liberal centrist party, encompassing moderate voters from both the centre-left and the centre-right. The party was established by four MPs from the National Party, two MPs from the Labour Party, and former Labour MP Peter Dunne, who had already established his own party, Future New Zealand (not to be confused with the Christian-based party of the same name which United later merged with). The party was led by Clive Matthewson, a former Labour MP. The MPs who established United were: 1996 election The party, while initially attracting interest, performed poorly in the 1996 election. The party's policies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alliance (New Zealand Political Party)
The Alliance was a left-wing political party in New Zealand. It was formed at the end of 1991 by the linking of four smaller parties. The Alliance positioned itself as a democratic socialist alternative to the centre-left New Zealand Labour Party. It was influential throughout the 1990s, but suffered a major setback after its founder and leader, Jim Anderton, left the party in 2002, taking with him several of its members of parliament (MPs). After the remaining MPs lost their seats in the 2002 general election, some commentators predicted the demise of the party. The Alliance stood candidates in the 2005 general election but won less than 1% of the party vote. It contested Auckland City Council elections under the City Vision banner, in concert with the New Zealand Labour Party and Green Party. The Alliance ran 15 electorate candidates and a total of 30 candidates on the party list in the 2008 general election, increasing its party vote marginally from that in 2005. It was der ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand Labour Party
The New Zealand Labour Party ( mi, Rōpū Reipa o Aotearoa), or simply Labour (), is a centre-left political party in New Zealand. The party's platform programme describes its founding principle as democratic socialism, while observers describe Labour as social-democratic and pragmatic in practice. The party participates in the international Progressive Alliance. It is one of two major political parties in New Zealand, alongside its traditional rival, the National Party. The New Zealand Labour Party formed in 1916 out of various socialist parties and trade unions. It is the country's oldest political party still in existence. Alongside the National Party, Labour has alternated in leading governments of New Zealand since the 1930s. , there have been six periods of Labour government under ten Labour prime ministers. The party has traditionally been supported by working class, urban, Māori, Pasifika, immigrant and trade unionist New Zealanders, and has had strongholds ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Closed List
Closed list describes the variant of party-list systems where voters can effectively only vote for political parties as a whole; thus they have no influence on the party-supplied order in which party candidates are elected. If voters had some influence, that would be called an open list. Closed list systems are still commonly used in party-list proportional representation, and most mixed electoral systems also use closed lists in their party list component. Many countries, however have changed their electoral systems to use open lists to incorporate personalised representation to their proportional systems. In closed list systems, each political party has pre-decided who will receive the seats allocated to that party in the elections, so that the candidates positioned highest on this list tend to always get a seat in the parliament while the candidates positioned very low on the closed list will not. However, the candidates "at the water mark" of a given party are in the positio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First-past-the-post Voting
In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their vote for a candidate of their choice, and the candidate who receives the most votes wins even if the top candidate gets less than 50%, which can happen when there are more than two popular candidates. As a winner-take-all method, FPTP often produces disproportional results (when electing members of an assembly, such as a parliament) in the sense that political parties do not get representation according to their share of the popular vote. This usually favours the largest party and parties with strong regional support to the detriment of smaller parties without a geographically concentrated base. Supporters of electoral reform are generally highly critical of FPTP because of this and point out other flaws, such as FPTP's vulnerabili ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand Electorates
An electorate or electoral district ( mi, rohe pōti) is a geographical constituency used for electing a member () to the New Zealand Parliament. The size of electorates is determined such that all electorates have approximately the same population. Before 1996, all MPs were directly chosen for office by the voters of an electorate. In New Zealand's electoral system, 72 of the usually 120 seats in Parliament are filled by electorate members, with the remainder being filled from party lists in order to achieve proportional representation among parties. The 72 electorates are made up from 65 general and seven Māori electorates. The number of electorates increases periodically in line with national population growth; the number was increased from 71 to 72 starting at the 2020 general election. Terminology The Electoral Act 1993 refers to electorates as "electoral districts". Electorates are informally referred to as "seats", but technically the term ''seat'' refers to an elect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingmaker
A kingmaker is a person or group that has great influence on a royal or political succession, without themselves being a viable candidate. Kingmakers may use political, monetary, religious and military means to influence the succession. Originally, the term applied to the activities of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick—"Warwick the Kingmaker"—during the Wars of the Roses (1455–1487) in England. Examples *The prophet Samuel of the Hebrew Bible, in the transition from the period of the biblical judges to the institution of a Kingdom of Israel under Saul, and again in the transition from Saul to David *Chanakya in the Maurya Empire *The Praetorian Guard in the Roman Empire * Yeon Gaesomun in Goguryeo * Tonyukuk in the Second Turkic Khaganate * Sayyid brothers in the Mughal Empire *Vidyaranya in the Vijayanagara Empire * Ricimer in the Late Western Roman Empire – magister militum who appointed a series of puppet emperors * Nogai, Mamai, and Edigu in the Golden Ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
