How does MMP work?
Under MMP, 120 MPs are elected to Parliament — 72 are elected by just the voters in individual electorates around the country and 48 are from political party lists (elected by all voters in New Zealand). It is a proportional system, which means that the proportion of votes a political party gets reflects the number of seats it has in Parliament.
Learn more about the MMP Voting System on the Electoral Commission website
Each voter gets two votes
The first vote is for the political party the voter chooses. This is called the party vote and is the most important because the total number of party votes for each party largely determines the total number of seats each political party is entitled to in Parliament.
The second vote is to choose the MP the voter wants to represent the local electorate they live in. This is called the electorate vote. The electorate vote uses the first-past-the-post system in that the candidate who gets one more vote than any other candidate wins.
Under current MMP rules, a political party that wins at least one electorate seat, or five percent of the party vote, gets a share of the seats in Parliament. This share is about the same as its share of the party vote.
The total number of seats a party can have is first determined by the party vote. Then, the number of electorate seats the party has won are subtracted from this total.
Finally, candidates are elected to Parliament from each party’s list so that the number of list seats, plus the number of electorate seats, equals the total number of seats each party is entitled to.
Read about how MPs are elected on the Electoral Commission website
MMP in the 2017 election
To form a government requires a party, or parties, to win a majority of the seats in Parliament (61 seats or more). Usually one party does not win enough votes to govern alone. Instead, a party (usually the largest one) must make an agreement with other parties to form a Government.
The 2017 election was the first time since New Zealand switched to the MMP voting system that the party with the largest number of seats was unable to form a Government with other parties. In the 2017 election, the National Party won 56 seats. Even though this was more than any other party, it was not enough to govern alone; it was also not able to make agreements with any other party to govern.
The types of agreements parties must make with other parties to form a Government, and to pass legislation, include:
- Coalition agreements – when two or more parties enter into a formal coalition agreement to form a Government.
- Confidence and supply agreements – when one party agrees to support the Government party, or parties, on votes of confidence in the House, and on the Budget (supply) bills that are voted on in Parliament.
In the 2017 election, the Labour Party won 46 seats. It entered into a coalition agreement to form a government with New Zealand First, which had nine seats.
This resulted in a coalition minority government with 55 seats — still short of the 61 seats needed for a majority. The Labour Party then also entered into a confidence and supply agreement with the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, which had eight seats.
Together, the three parties have a majority of 63 seats in Parliament.
How a Government is formed through MMP
