How should Christians vote? 2. Understand

There is no excuse not to understand the voting system. If you don't understand the system, you may well find that your vote is wasted or used for something you didn't intend.

Local body elections have their own voting system and this may differ from city to city - Find out what yours is.

The national MMP system has been in place 11 years. Simply:

1. You get two votes.

2. One vote, the electorate vote, is for the person to represent you and your "electorate" (immediate area) in parliament. There are about 63 electorates in New Zealand, meaning that 63 of the Members of Parliament are there because they won the electorate. The individual who wins the electorate is the person who gets the most electorate votes (ie they don't have to get 50% - just more than any other candidate standing in that electorate). Their part affiliation (if any) has absolutely no bearing on the outcome. NOTE: If we wanted we could vote in 63 independent MPs with no party affiliation to represent the interests of our area. For the vast majority of electorates it does not make sense to vote for someone just because they belong to a particular party (although - this may say something about them). Christians should be trying to discern what kind of individuals are standing in their electorate, what their integrity is, what their capabilities are and vote accordingly.

3. The second vote, the party vote, is for a political party that you wish to have representation in parliament. The party vote determines the overall make up of parliament - ie the number of MPs from a particular party is proportional to the total party vote that they get. There are normally 120 MPs in parliament total being made up of the 63 electorate MPs and the 57 who come into parliament via the list. The actual MPs who get in parliament from a particular party will be made up of those who win an electorate seat and, if the party vote is large enough, others who are next on the "list" that every party must publish prior to the election.

4. NOTE: The party vote is NOT a vote for a prime minister. We do not have that kind of system like in the US where they have a vote for a president. There is, in fact, no guarantee that the prime minister will be the leader of the biggest party in parliament. It is almost certain that no one party will get more than 50% of the vote and, therefore, be able to govern alone (the last time a party got more than 50% of the vote in New Zealand was in 1951 following the Waterfront Strikes). This means that there are likely to be some kind of arrangement between parties. Depending on how the numbers fall will determine what kind of arrangements are possible. For example, if, in the next election, National won 59 seats, Labour 50, and the Greens 11 and no one else was in Parliament, then National could not form a government all by itself. However, National + Greens (unlikely) could or Labour + Greens (more likely) could form a government.

5. There are only two ways that a Party can gain representation in parliament - they must either, win an electorate seat OR get more than 5% of the party vote. In the current parliament four parties - Progressive (1MP), United Future (3MPs), Maori (4MPs), and ACT (2MPs) gained their position in parliament because at least one of the MPs won an electorate seat. In the case of Progressive their party vote was not sufficient to gain another MP. In the case of UF and ACT their party vote was sufficient that they gained two and one more MP respectively. The Maori won 4 electorates and have 4 MPs even though their party vote only was the equivalent of 3MPs (that is why this parliament has 121MPs and not 120 - called an overhang).
Greens and NZ First did not gain an electorate seat, but both passed the 5% barrier. Labour and National both passed the 5% barrier and gained electorate seats.

6. NOTE: If you vote for a Party that does not either win an electorate seat or reach the 5% barrier then your vote is not lost - it is redistributed to the parties that do get into parliament. This has the effect of giving some other parties extra seats in parliament (in particular the larger parties). Eg. From memory 0.62% of voters voted for Destiny in the last election (about 12000 votes I think). Of those 12000 votes about 4800 were given to Labour, 4800 to National and the rest to Greens, NZ First, United Future, ACT, and Progressives in that order. The outcome is that Destiny voters most likely contributed to more seats for Labour and National. So, before you cast your party vote, you should make sure that the party you are wanting to vote for is most likely to be in parliament (because it will win an electorate seat OR is polling at least above 3 or 4%) OR you are happy for your vote to be redistributed to other parties (another way of looking at it is that you may be passionately opposed to National, say, and think that Mcgillicuddy serious party is a better alternative. But the McGs won't get into parliament so about 0.4 (40%) of your vote will be given to National whom you oppose if they get 40% of votes cast on the night of the election!!!)