Electoral reform in New Zealand

Electoral reform in New Zealand has, in recent years, become a political issue as major changes have been made to both Parliamentary and local government electoral systems.

All New Zealand elections from 1914 to 1996 consistently used the British system of first-past-the-post (FPP) for parliamentary elections (bloc voting and runoff voting were also used in some elections before 1914). This system had consistently favoured the two largest parties. From 1936 on, these were the National and Labour parties.

The electoral reform debate began in earnest in New Zealand following two successive general elections in 1978 and 1981 in which the National Party won majority status with less than 40% of the vote, even though it won a lower share of the vote than the Labour Party. The Social Credit Party was also finding that the system worked against them, winning only one seat out of 92 in 1978 and two seats in 1981 as against 16.1% of the vote in 1978 and 20.7% of the vote in 1981. Governments had been previously formed despite the opposition winning the popular vote in both 1911 and 1931 as well.

In its 1984 campaign platform, Labour committed itself to appoint a royal commission on electoral reform if elected. Labour won that election and in 1985 Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Geoffrey Palmer established the Royal Commission on the Electoral System. Palmer had promoted proportional representation as a law professor in his book Unbridled Power?, also published in 1984. The Royal Commission's 1986 report, entitled Towards a Better Democracy recommended the adoption of the mixed-member proportional representation (MMP). Recognizing that a parliament dominated by the major parties might fail to implement a sweeping reform of this sort, the commission also proposed a referendum on the issue.

...
Wikipedia