Electoral system of New Zealand

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The New Zealand parliamentary electoral system has been based on the principle of mixed-member proportional (MMP) since the 1996 election. MMP was introduced following a referendum in 1993. It replaced the first-past-the-post (FPP) system New Zealand had previously used for most of its history. Under the MMP system, New Zealanders have two secret ballot votes to elect members of Parliament (MPs). The first vote is for a candidate from an electorate, a geographic electoral district. The second is the party vote for the political party the voter wants to form the government.

The timing of elections is governed by the Constitution Act 1986 and political conventions. Generally, parliamentary general elections are held approximately every three years and are conducted by the independent Electoral Commission.

New Zealand's Parliament has a single house, the House of Representatives, usually with 120 MPs, although the number can increase due to a small number of overhang seats, depending on the outcome of the electoral process. The total number of MPs a party has in a term of parliament is in principle determined by its share of the party vote. The 54th Parliament, elected in 2023, comprises 123 seats: 72 were filled by electorate MPs^[a] and the remaining seats filled by list MPs selected from ranked party lists.

In 1893, New Zealand was the first self-governing country to grant women the right to vote. This meant that, theoretically, New Zealand had universal suffrage from 1893, meaning all adults 21 years of age and older were allowed to vote (in 1969 the voting age was lowered from 21 to 20. It was lowered further to 18 in 1974).^[1] However, the voting rules that applied to the European settlers did not apply to Māori, and their situation is still unique in that seven seats in Parliament are elected by Māori voters alone.

In contemporary New Zealand, generally all permanent residents and citizens aged 18 or older are eligible to vote. The main exceptions include citizens who have lived overseas continuously for too long, and convicted persons who are detained in a psychiatric hospital or serving a prison term of more than three years.^[2]

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