Luxon wants a referendum on MMP – How does the current system work?

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says he will hold a referendum on the MMP voting system if he’s elected back into power.

So how does the current MMP voting system work?

Here’s what you need to know.

What is MMP?

MMP stands for Mixed Member Proportional representation, the electoral system used in New Zealand.

A majority of New Zealanders voted for it – twice, first in a non-binding referendum in 1992, and again in a binding referendum at the election the following year. It was introduced in the next election, in 1996.

MMP aims to ensure that people are represented in Parliament both by a person in their local area (electorate), and by a group (a political party).

Jim Bolger (right) and Winston Peters at the head of the newly minted first MMP coalition Government in 1996.

How does it work?

New Zealanders have two votes – one for a local representative, and one for a political party. You just pick the person in your electorate you think best advances your interests, and the political party that best represents your interests.

Simple, right?

The complexity comes in when trying to calculate how these votes translate into the seats available for members of Parliament (MPs).

There are (typically) 120 seats:

• Currently 72 are electorate seats, which are won by candidates standing in specific areas. This will drop to 71 after this election.
• Currently 48 are list seats and are allocated depending on the proportion of party votes won, taking into account the number of electorate seats each party has won. This will rise to 49 after this year’s election.

Basically, it all means that the proportion of party votes should be about the same as the proportion of seats in the Parliament. Electorate MPs will belong to one party or another unless they’re running as an independent, but voters do not need to vote for an electorate representative that matches their party vote.

Other things to consider

New Zealanders get two votes under the MMP system. Photo / Chris Gorman

A party has to win at least 5% of votes or an electorate seat to achieve a presence in Parliament.

If it wins an electorate seat, the party is allocated a percentage of list seats based on its party vote – known as the “coat-tail” rule.

If a party wins more electorates than its share of party votes allows for, extra seats can be added to the Parliament to make up for the “overhang” and ensure the proportions remain correct. For instance, this resulted in 121 MPs in 2005, 122 MPs in 2008 and 121 in 2011. Currently there are 123 sitting MPs based on the results of the 2023 election.

So who wins the election?

In contrast to some countries overseas – the United States, for example – the election in New Zealand is not voting for the country’s leader. People vote only for the parties and electorates.

But someone has to be in charge. Someone has to make sure the organisations doing all the management of the country – funding hospitals and schools, repairing roads and infrastructure, managing prisons – all that administrative stuff, and more, is being done properly.

This responsibility – and the power it entails – belongs to the Government.

Who gets to become the Government is basically whichever party can get a majority – more than 50% – of the seats, based on their party vote. If none of the parties has enough to reach more than 50%, they must all negotiate about their plans until a combination of the parties has at least half the seats.

This can result in a coalition – where the bigger party and smaller party form a Government together and come up with a complete policy plan – or a confidence and supply agreement, where the smaller parties agree to support the main, governing party on specific policies.

National leader and PM Christopher Luxon. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Under confidence and supply, the smaller party need not support policies that fall outside the agreement.

With 50% of the seats in Parliament, the governing party or coalition can decide what to change about how the country works and enact these decisions in Parliament.

The governing parties have most of the power. The parties that are not governing are known as the opposition, and it is their job to criticise and poke holes in the plans the Government is putting forward.

Will MMP ever change?

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has promised to hold a referendum on the system if re-elected in November – along with looking at extending the parliamentary term to four years.

But while not everyone likes MMP, more people wanted to keep it than replace it the last time it was checked.

In the 2011 election, a referendum – much like the recreational cannabis and end-of-life-choice referendums in the 2020 election – was held to see if MMP was still the preferred way of doing things.

The referendum asked two questions: whether voters wanted to keep MMP or replace it, and what system would be preferred if it was changed. Almost 58% of voters wanted to keep it, up from the 53.9% in favour in the 1993 binding referendum.

Nevertheless, the result triggered an Electoral Commission review of how well MMP was working. The review recommended several changes. A subsequent interim report from an independent review commissioned by the Government recommended changes like abolishing the “coat-tail” rule and the “overhang” seats provision, but these changes have not been implemented.

 This story was first published on rnz.co.nz