Why New Zealand voters are being urged to split their votes
Te Pāti Māori is urging split votes, and calls on the right aim to win extra seats.
New Zealand voters cast a party vote and an electorate vote, and the two may go to different parties. An overhang happens when a party wins more electorate seats than its party vote entitles it to.
Overhangs have happened at half of New Zealand's elections since 1996. Te Pāti Māori wants supporters to give Labour or the Greens their party vote.
Te Pāti Māori leaders say the plan would increase Māori MPs and change the government. Calls on the right urge National-leaning voters to back National's electorate candidate.
The party vote would then go to ACT or New Zealand First. National leader Christopher Luxon and former leader John Key have dismissed the vote-splitting idea as 'the opposite of clever'.
The article warns a large overhang could erode public confidence in the electoral system.
- 5%
- Party vote threshold
- 1996 to present, about half
- Elections with overhangs since
- John Banks, Epsom electorate
- Pivotal 2011 example
Why it mattersVoters who split their votes should know it could enlarge parliament and shift who forms the government.
AustraliaNo direct Australian effect yet; only a change to New Zealand's voting rules would alter that.
✓ Claims checked against the source. checked 7 h ago
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