NEW ZEALAND ELECTORATES
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In New Zealand, an 'electorate' is a voting district for Parliamentary elections. They are sometimes informally called 'seats'. Historically, all Members of Parliament were directly chosen for office by the voters of an electorate. Today, under the MMP electoral system, 69 of the usually 120 seats in Parliament are filled by electorate races, with the remainder being filled from party lists in order to achieve proportional representation.
Distribution
Originally, electorates were drawn up based on political and social links, with little consideration for differences in population. Each electorate was allocated a different number of MPs (up to three) in order to balance population differences, but this was only partly successful. Eventually, a new system was introduced — each electorate would elect one MP, and would boundaries would be drawn based on population. However, a special country quota meant that rural seats were allowed to contain fewer people than urban seats, preserving an inequality (and over-representing farmers). The quota persisted until 1945.
Today, electorate boundaries are determined by the Representation Commission. The Commission consists of:
★ Four government officials — the Government Statistician, the Surveyor-General, the Chief Electoral Officer, and the Chairperson of the Local Government Commission.
★ A representative of the governing party or coalition, and a representative of the opposition block.
★ A chairperson (often a judge) nominated by the other members, with the exception of Chairperson of the Local Government Commission.
Boundaries are reviewed after each New Zealand Census, which occurs every five years. The South Island is guaranteed to have 16 general seats, with the remainder of voters (North Island and MÄori) being divided into electorates of the same population as the South Island ones. Electorates may vary by 5% of the average population size. This has led to the number of list seats in Parliament to decline as the population is experiencing 'northern drift' (i.e. the population of the North Island, especially around Auckland, is growing faster than that of the South Island).
In a continuation of 'northern drift', the North Island will get an extra electoral seat for the 2008 general election.[1] The need for an extra seat was determined from the results of the 2006 Census. The extra seat will bring the total number of electoral seats to 70, and reduce the number of list seats to 50. Although the addition of another Maori seat was considered likely, their number will remain unchanged on seven.[2]
Special electorates
Over the years, there have been two types of "special" electorates created for a particular community. The first were special goldminers' electorates, created for the benefit of participants in the Otago Goldrush — goldminers did not usually meet the residency and property requirements in the electorate they were currently prospecting in, but were numerous enough to want political representation. These electorates, of which only two were created, did not last long. Much more durable have been the MÄori electorates, created to give separate representation to MÄori citizens. Although originally intended to be temporary, they came to function as reserved positions for MÄori, ensuring that there would always be a MÄori voice in Parliament. Until 1996 the number of MÄori electorates was fixed at four, significantly under-representing MÄori in Parliament. However the introduction of MMP allowed for the seat number to change with the population.
Historical list of electorates
General electorates
Electorates listed in 'bold' are electorates that returned a member of Parliament at the most recent General Election.
MÄori electorates
Goldminers' electorates
★ Goldfields
★ Goldfields Towns
List of electorates as of 2005 General Election
General electorate
MÄori electorate
References and notes
1. North Island to get additional electoral seat in 2008
2. Another Maori seat likely
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