electoral systems

Categories under electoral systems

Is the Epsom seat goneburger?

Written By: - Date published: 7:22 am, October 25th, 2024 - 23 comments

The North Island needs to lose an electorate seat. It appears that Epsom is the most logical seat to go.

The best Government that money can buy

Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, October 11th, 2024 - 35 comments

Radio New Zealand has reported that $500,000 in donations to National, Act and NZ First were made by entities associated to those who had their projects included in the recently released schedule to the Fast Track Projects Bill.

Roger Douglas Has a Lesson for the Left

Written By: - Date published: 12:33 pm, August 25th, 2024 - 28 comments

Roger Douglas, the most revolutionary minister in the postwar history of Aotearoa, knew how to exert change in three years. Rogernomics transformed the economy with dizzying speed, from protectionist welfare state to a neoliberal free market. Elliot Crossan argues that the left needs to take the same approach to end the era of neoliberalism.

Quality of candidates – start with “are they human?”

Written By: - Date published: 10:34 am, July 9th, 2024 - 12 comments

With all of the issues about Green party MPs, who have been having issues recently, I was intrigued to run across the article in the Guardian “Reform UK under pressure to prove all its candidates were real people” after the recent election in the UK.

UK General Election – the mood on the doorstep

Written By: - Date published: 10:04 pm, June 10th, 2024 - 12 comments

The UK still has the First Past the Post Electoral system. Something New Zealand should have absolutely no nostalgia for. This means that, while the campaign is UK-wide, a lot of campaign activity is directed into constituencies that are deemed marginal. In marginal constituencies, a General Election brings a conveyor belt of the good and the great supporting their prospective parliamentary candidate. In “safe seats” voters get much less attention.

British politics – hurry up and wait for a general election

Written By: - Date published: 4:58 am, May 21st, 2024 - 16 comments

While I do not pick elections, I think it is safe to make this point. If Rishi Sunak and the Conservative Party are holding on for a dramatic change in polling numbers, they are unlikely to see this happen. On current polling, even a 7% swing in their favour would not be enough to stop them from losing the election. Labour should not be complacent, but it is increasingly obvious that the voter coalition that helped the Conservatives win in 2019 has collapsed.

Understanding the New Zealand General Election 2023: Historical trends and perspectives.

Written By: - Date published: 6:01 am, September 20th, 2023 - 15 comments

From the outside, the New Zealand 2023 General Election seems both lacklustre and slightly strange. The Labour Government, having won a huge majority in 2020 is now fighting for its political life. Yet National, the main centre-right opposition party is still on average polling significantly worse now than they were when it lost power in 2017.

NZ history of voting systems in elections

Written By: - Date published: 12:46 pm, May 13th, 2023 - 33 comments

A guest post by Seddonville Miner outlining the history of voting rights in New Zealand and how Christopher Luxon’s recent claims about our voting system are hopelessly incorrect.

UK Labour – can they finally beat the Tories?

Written By: - Date published: 9:19 am, January 30th, 2023 - 18 comments

The left in the UK needs to accept they alone do not have majority support and need to work with what they term the “soft left” and more centrist factions to win. The current Labour leadership need to ensure that the left still has a stake in Labour winning, and give enough to motivate the left to vote and campaign for Labour. Look at the lessons learnt by the US Democrats.

Luxon blunders again

Written By: - Date published: 2:38 pm, January 26th, 2023 - 25 comments

Chris Luxon has provided another example of his ineptness by suggesting in an MMP environment that a vote in a Maori Seat is worth more than a vote in an European seat.

Why stick more fingers in the donations dyke?

Written By: - Date published: 9:50 pm, August 1st, 2022 - 13 comments

The latest attempt to construct a sensible political donations regime will likely again prove to be full of holes. Going back to basics would be much better. The good news is that the basics were comprehensively assessed 36 years ago by the 1986 Royal Commission on Electoral Reform. It recommended state funding.

Political donations law needs reform

Written By: - Date published: 2:44 pm, August 1st, 2022 - 7 comments

Judge Jagose’s decision to acquit two persons linked to New Zealand First charged with obtaining control over $750,000 has opened up rather large holes in the obligations of political parties to report donations.

Early voting opens in Aussie election

Written By: - Date published: 12:22 pm, May 11th, 2022 - 33 comments

The early voting polls have opened in Australia, so the election there is nigh. Reading on the election there has been interesting. The weirdness of marginal seats. The burgeoning dissatisfaction and probable deciding impact of Aussie women on this election result.

What the recent elections tell us about British society

Written By: - Date published: 11:31 pm, May 17th, 2021 - 35 comments

Originally posted on Nick Kelly’s Blog In a nation that has suffered over 100,000 COVID-19 deaths, one may be somewhat taken aback to see the latest YouGov Poll where The Conservative Party enjoy a 15% lead over the Labour Opposition. 17 months after the Conservatives won the 2019 General Election, it would be easy to […]

Donations trouble for Māori Party and National

Written By: - Date published: 8:08 am, April 13th, 2021 - 14 comments

The Electoral laws about donations are pretty clear.  Receive a donation over $30,000 and you should tell the Electoral Commission about the report within the next ten working days.  But the Maori Party and the National Party have both managed to recently breach this simple requirement.

Trump loses the presidency, but Trumpism lives on

Written By: - Date published: 12:30 am, November 19th, 2020 - 8 comments

The reality is that the United States is a poor example of a functioning democracy in 2020.

NZ election 2020: Labour win is a watershed moment in the country’s history

Written By: - Date published: 12:27 am, October 20th, 2020 - 47 comments

The 2020 election was more than just a victory for Labour and more than a crushing defeat for the National Party (New Zealand’s main centre-right political party). This result marks a significant watershed in New Zealand politics which will likely have implications long after this parliamentary term.

Left/Green/Indigenous

Written By: - Date published: 12:32 pm, October 18th, 2020 - 135 comments

What kind of government might New Zealand have?

Your Preliminary Parliament for 2020

Written By: - Date published: 2:33 am, October 18th, 2020 - 58 comments

On the preliminary results, we have our expected MPs. While Parliament may change a little, we now know its shape, and its likely members- with about three exceptions.

Pollwatch: August Roy Morgan poll, reported 1st September 2020

Written By: - Date published: 4:30 pm, September 2nd, 2020 - 30 comments

A trend of 2020 polling results

Pollwatch returns, with a Labour majority government no longer a complete certainty, and with another poor result for National.

Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Government: Style over substance or a guiding light for progressive politics?

Written By: - Date published: 8:42 am, August 10th, 2020 - 33 comments

Critics have dismissed the Jacinda Ardern government as being one of style over substance. This is unfair given the challenges this government has faced and the policy achievements it has had. However, it is a government that has much work to do if it wins a second term. And its over-reliance on Jacinda as party leader is a huge strategic risk, especially when the governments front bench is perceived, rightly or wrongly, to be lightweight.

July 2020 Roy Morgan Poll

Written By: - Date published: 7:11 pm, August 8th, 2020 - 45 comments

The latest Roy Morgan poll is out.

Crusher?

Crushed!

The test of MMP

Written By: - Date published: 12:20 pm, August 5th, 2020 - 123 comments

With the left’s political fortunes having changed greatly in the past three years, and with more change on the way, does the left still want MMP?

Strategic voting is a bad thing unless you live in Epsom

Written By: - Date published: 7:42 am, July 30th, 2020 - 49 comments

Nick Smith has publicly opposed a change to the electoral system that would allow strategic manipulation of the electoral system.  But only by Māori.

UMR’s bombshell poll result

Written By: - Date published: 11:41 am, May 1st, 2020 - 142 comments

A leaked UMR poll result puts National on 29%.

National seeks delay to election

Written By: - Date published: 7:38 am, April 9th, 2020 - 120 comments

Hot on the news that National’s polling has plunged to 35% Paula Bennett has publicly suggested that the election should be delayed. I wonder if they are related?

National is going low on law and order issues

Written By: - Date published: 7:48 am, February 27th, 2020 - 10 comments

Over the past week National has shown a willingness to take really base aggressive positions on law and order issues for political advantages no matter what principles are at stake.  And at the same time show a complete lack of understanding of the issues that are involved.

Postal voting – essentially dead

Written By: - Date published: 7:41 am, February 25th, 2020 - 62 comments

Stuff has an article up about last years local body elections in Auckland. As usual  the interesting parts are at the end. But I have to reiterate – online voting isn’t the answer. As a programmer, I’d just call it stupid and dangerous.

Sustainable NZ not so sustainable after all

Written By: - Date published: 2:42 pm, February 21st, 2020 - 23 comments

It appears that National’s dream of an alternative Green party that would drive the real Green Party below the threshold is in tatters with news that Sustainable NZ is on the skids.

National’s donation reporting problem

Written By: - Date published: 7:19 am, February 19th, 2020 - 25 comments

National’s recent donations returns suggest that a large total of their donations are made in the under $15,000 category, the benefit of which is that the donor’s identity does not have to be disclosed.  Update: The four accused have been named.

Will DPF condemn National for hiding the identity of its donors?

Written By: - Date published: 7:35 am, February 11th, 2020 - 59 comments

David Farrar has called for the suspension of Winston Peters from Cabinet for reasons which would also justify the suspension of Simon Bridges from the National Party.