(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - People in New Zealand are divided on the issue of which voting system is preferable, according to a poll by DigiPoll published in the New Zealand Herald. 39 per cent of respondents would pick the first-past-the-post process if they had to vote in a referendum on the matter, while 35 per cent would chose the mixed-member proportional system.

Labour leader Helen Clark has acted as New Zealand’s prime minister since December 1999. In November 2006, Don Brash—who had served as National’s leader since October 2003—announced his resignation and was substituted by finance spokesman John Key.

In the September 2005 ballot, Labour elected 50 lawmakers to the 121-seat House of Representatives, and assembled a coalition government with the Progressives. United Future and New Zealand First agreed to support the administration in confidence and supply votes for three years. National finished second, with 48 legislators.

Until 1996, New Zealand relied on the first-past-the-post approach for parliamentary elections, where candidates join Parliament by getting more votes than any rival in a specific constituency. The party with more elected members—regardless of total vote count or percentage—then forms the government.

New Zealand voters backed the mixed-member proportional voting system in a 1993 binding referendum. The rationale allocates 65 seats in the House of Representatives as first-past-the-post, and 55 seats through proportional representation party lists.

In July, published reports claimed that New Zealand First received multiple donations from the Vela family’s thoroughbred and fishing companies from 1999 to 2003, which were never declared. New Zealand First leader Winston Peters was appointed foreign minister by Clark to ensure his party’s support for a new Labour administration after the 2005 legislative election.

On Aug. 29, Peters quit his cabinet post while he was subject to an investigation. On Sept. 23, he was censured by the legislature for "knowingly providing false or misleading information on a return of pecuniary interests."

Days before, on Sept. 10, Graeme Hunt—a journalist and outspoken activist in favour of subjecting the mixed-member proportional system to a national vote—said that this voting system "elevated the head of a minor party to a major political post at great cost to the country’s reputation," adding, "Mr. Peters’ fall not only damages the standing of the government of the day but it also brings into question the very system that propelled Mr. Peters to power. (...) Letting the public decide whether the voting system meets their needs and aspirations has never been stronger."

The next legislative election will take place on Nov. 8.

Polling Data

If a referendum on voting systems were held today, what would you choose?

Source: DigiPoll / New Zealand Herald
Methodology: Interviews to 700 New Zealand eligible voters, conducted in Sept. 15 to Sept. 24, 2008. Margin of error is 3.7 per cent.

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