In case you hadn’t noticed it’s election time. Did you know that this election you get four votes. That’s right, four votes.
As well as your MMP electorate and party vote, you also get to vote yes or no to retaining MMP as the electoral system. Regardless of what you choose, you get to vote for your preference, should the majority decide they no longer want MMP. Those four alternatives are:
- Supplementary Member (SM)
- Preferential voting (PV)
- Single transferable vote (STV)
- First Past the Post (FPP)
It’s worth finding out more about these alternatives voting systems so you can make an informed choice.
On Sunday morning I listened to an Insights debate on Radio New Zealand National . A number of ‘experts’ and ‘has-beens’ (depending on your perspective) from NZ Politics advocated for their preferred voting system.
I thought one of the most interesting comments of the debate came from Jeanette Fitzsimmons, an MMP supporter. Jeanette asked the questions “What are communities of interest?” and “Who should MPs be accountable to?” In the days before we could travel freely, our community of interest was local and it made sense to have an electorate MP representing our local interests. But that’s not necessarily true today is it?
Jeanette cited a couple of examples of communities not built around geography, one being the disability community.
I looked at my own experience in the disability community, and tended to agree with her. Not many people I know in this context are in my electorate. My community is a broad, dynamic one and its members and locations can change depending on the current focus or need.
I’m going to think about this as I mull over the options. I’ve heard quite a bit of scorn poured on list MPs, but some of that is directed at the process that gets poor-performing electorate MPs in the back door to parliament as list MPs. If MMP is returned as the preferred option, there will be a review.
There’s no question that our parliament is more diverse than it ever was under FPP, and I would hate to see us go back to that system. Have a listen to Insights for an interesting and informed debate. I’m going to listen again.
I too think its a good idea to listen again Trish.. I am going to and will of course have Sarah with me listening again.. I know she has her party and electorate votes sorted (she does this by favourite colour) but I fear changing the voting system vote will cause a few problems.
It couldnt be more spectacular than last election when despite my help she drew all over the polling booth with the orange felt pen and then tipped over a polling booth behind which a man was trying to vote.. to be fair those booths are very flimsy!
Sarah’s father is not comfortable with the fact that I assist her to exercise her right to vote.. I would love to hear how other people feel about someone significantly disabled voting and indeed having help to do so..
Yes, the elecoral process vote is going to complicate things a bit. All those accronyms are confusing. Perhaps the options should be colour-coded on the form.