Ele Ludemann: Another MMP flaw

MMP has many flaws.

They include the power it gives to parties rather than the public; bigger electorates making it harder to service; and the ability for tail waggery.

The death of Act’s Port Waikato candidate, Neil Christensen, is sad for his family and friends and a loss to both the veterinary community and the people whose poultry he looked after.

It also shows up another flaw in our electoral system.

The death means that the candidate election will be cancelled and a by-election has to be held.

This means the election result will be based on a 120-seat Parliament with 71 electorate seats and 49 list MPs, rather than 72 electorate MPs and 48 list MPs.

. . . Port Waikato is currently held by National MP Andrew Bayly, who is likely to win the seat again. He won 38.74 per cent of the candidate vote, while 36.17 per cent of the party vote went to National despite Labour’s strong nationwide showing.

Bayly will now likely be a list MP – he is number 15 on National’s list – after the election, and if he wins the byelection, National would gain an extra MP off its list. . .

This ought to be a safe National seat but a by-election opens up the opportunity for game playing.

It happened in Northland when Labour didn’t stand a candidate, Winston Peters won the seat and his party got an extra list MP while National, which had held the seat before its MP resigned mid-term, was then an MP short.

One of the supposed benefits of MMP is that it gives proportional representation.

But an electorate win that results in another MP, whether from the party that had previously held the seat or another one, upsets the proportionality.

A by-election is also very expensive for both taxpayers and parties.

There are better systems than MMP and there must be a better way for it to function than this.

Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE - where this article was sourced.