Central Government in New Zealand
New Zealand is a democracy. The 120 Members of Parliament who make up the single chamber of Parliament called the House of Representatives are chosen in free and fair elections for a three year term using the mixed member proportional (MMP) system.
How we choose our government
Under the mixed member proportional (MMP) system, voters get two votes in a parliamentary election- an electorate vote and a party vote. Each party vote helps decide how many seats each party gets in Parliament. Each electorate vote helps decide who becomes the local Member of Parliament (MP).
All 120 MPs are either ‘electorate MPs’ or ‘list MPs’. There are 70 electorate seats and 50 list seats available. List MPs make up the remainder of each party’s share of the seats in Parliament on top of the actual electorate seats they have won.
The Government is formed by one or more parties with enough seats to win important votes in Parliament. The Government is then accountable to Parliament for its actions and policies. The main decision-making body of the Government is called the Cabinet. Ministers, who are responsible for running the various aspects of the Government, answer to Parliament for their actions and policies and also for the departments and agencies that they are responsible for.
Most of the time, proposed changes to the law go to a select committee, where MPs from a range of parties meet and debate the merits of the changes.
In New Zealand, citizens and permanent residents aged 18 years and over who have lived in New Zealand continually for a year and have lived in an electorate for at least one month must enrol to vote. Electoral records are maintained by the Registrar of Electors and are regularly updated.
Voting itself is not compulsory. Every New Zealand citizen who is enrolled as an elector can also stand for Parliament in the General Elections.
Further information
You can find out more about the MMP system at www.elections.org.nz/voting/mmp/
For information about how to enrol to vote visit the Elections website.
This information is also available on the Elections website in Maori, Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Cook Islands Maori, Farsi- Persian, Gujarati, Hindi, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Niuean, Punjabi, Samoan, Somalian, Thai, Tokelauan, Tongan and Vietnamese
