World News – UA – NZ Election 2020: How New Zealand’s MMP Election System Works

From 7 p.m. on Saturday evening, the Election Commission will start publishing the results of the 2020 general election and we will start to see how our next Parliament can look

Under the MMP, each eligible voter has two votes – one for a candidate from their electorate and one for a party An electorate is an area of ​​New Zealand in which the voter is registered, of which 72 are Aotearoa

The electorate’s vote is for the candidate that the voter wants to represent their region in Parliament These candidates are usually from parties, but could be independent The candidate who obtains the most votes becomes his deputy (MP) and gets a seat

Party voting is for the group of politicians the voter supports The percentage of votes a party receives largely determines how many seats the party gets in total in our 120-seat Parliament This means that seats are allocated based on the portion of the vote that counts

A party must receive more than 5% of the party’s vote or win an electorate to gain seats in Parliament

For example, a party with 30% of the party’s vote will get around 30% of the seats – around 36 seats

The seats to which a party is entitled from the party’s vote are first occupied by the candidates elected to the electorate

However, if his party’s vote means he is entitled to more seats than those he wins through the electorate, these are filled from the party’s list of ranked candidates

Let’s say a party is entitled to 36 seats per party vote.If it wins 30 voters, that means the remaining six seats are filled by people on its list The highest ranked person on the list who does not wins no electorate gets the first empty seat and so on until all the allocated seats are filled

If a party wins more electorate seats than the party’s vote entitles it to, there may be an overrun, which means more than 120 seats in Parliament. It does not affect the number of seats that the other parties get

A candidate who wins an electorate will have a seat in Parliament whether or not his party reaches the 5% threshold.If the candidate wins an electorate and his party gets, for example, 3% of the vote, the party will always receive around 3% of seats in Parliament even if it does not reach 5%

Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand General Election 2020