David Farrar: The TPM overhang strategy could result in permament left wing government

Te Pati Maori are trying to use the Māori seats to engineer overhang seats, to try and lock the centre right out of power – even if they win more votes. But recent law changes means the potential impact of this strategy could be huge.

At present there are seven Māori seats. If TPM won all seven, and got fewer than 0.4% PV that would be a seven seat overhang. It means that you would need 64 seats to form a Government instead of 61.

David Farrar: How unproportional might the next Parliament be?

MMP is meant to deliver a proportional Parliament. That is how it is designed, and how it was sold.

There is one aspect to it though that can make Parliaments unproportional. It is overhang seats – when a party wins more electorates than their share of the party vote would entitle them to.