In 1996 New Zealanders voted under the new mixed-member proportional (MMP) electoral system for the first time. Tired of old electoral rules which routinely handed power to either National or Labour, even when they won less than 50% of the vote and disenchanted with governments which routinely abused their electoral mandates, many citizens hoped the new system would usher in a different style of politics. Three decades down the track, Professor Richard Shaw, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University asks: Have things worked out that way? What, if anything, has changed? And what is the future for not only MMP, but the wider political system in Aotearoa New Zealand?
Image: Supplied.
