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A list MP is a member of parliament (MP) elected from a party list rather than from a geographical constituency. The place in Parliament is due to the number of votes that the party won, not to votes received by the MP personally. This occurs only in countries which have an electoral system based wholly or partly on party-list proportional representation.
In some countries, seats in the chamber are filled solely in accordance with the share of votes won by each individual party. Thus, in Israel, all Members of the Knesset (MKs) are list members. Under this system, MKs are appointed from lists of candidates created by each party until the party has reached its allocated number. In other countries, a more complicated system is used. In the method used in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, some seats are filled using party lists, while others are filled by the "traditional" First Past the Post system. Under the Additional Member System, or Mixed Member Proportional, the method used in Germany and New Zealand, a merger of party-list representation and geographic representation is employed — parties contest geographic seats, but are then "topped up" with MPs from a party list.
New Zealand has 120 MPs represented by five parliamentary parties, out of which there are 72 electorate seats, 65 general electorate seats and seven Māori electorates, elected using First Past the Post voting system (FPP); the candidate who gets the most votes wins. The other 48 MPs are elected from the party lists. The number of List MPs each party gets is the difference between a party's total allocation of seats in parliament and its number of electorate MPs.
The existence of list MPs has caused controversy in some countries. It is sometimes complained that because list MPs do not have a geographic electorate, they are not properly accountable to anyone. In addition, the methods used to create party lists are sometimes criticised as undemocratic — in a closed list system, the public have no way of influencing the composition of a party list. In this situation, the public cannot support one candidate without also supporting other candidates from the same party. Supporters of party list proportional representation sometimes retort that the public often have little control over the selection of local candidates, either — if a voter's preferred party selects a poor candidate, the voter is forced to either vote for a candidate they dislike or vote for a party they dislike. Under a party list system, voters can support their preferred party even if they are unwilling to vote for its local candidate.
An open list system, [1] however, may go some way to addressing the concern that voters can only support all the candidates that were proposed by the party. A notable example of this was in the 2006 Dutch general election. The VVD had chosen Mark Rutte as their list puller (lijsttrekker). In the Netherlands, the party leader usually gets a large majority of the votes for that party, but in 2006 the number 2 on the list, Rita Verdonk got over 10% more votes than Mark Rutte. This eventually led to Rita Verdonk leaving the VVD and starting her own party.
There is also debate about the right of a list MP to switch parties. Because list MPs gain their seats by virtue of being on a party list, rather than by winning votes personally, some contend that the party, not the MP, is the rightful "owner" of the seat. In New Zealand, there have been several controversies regarding list MPs who left their parties — Alamein Kopu, elected from the Alliance list, controversially became an independent, [2] and Donna Awatere Huata, elected from the ACT list, similarly became an independent. In the latter case, Awatere Huata's former party went to the Supreme Court to expel her from Parliament under so-called waka jumping or "party-hopping" legislation. ACT alleged that it was ACT, not Awatere Huata, who was awarded the seat in the last election, and that when Awatere Huata left ACT, she should not have been able to take the seat with her. ACT's view was accepted, and Awatere Huata was expelled from Parliament.
The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy is a conservative-liberal political party in the Netherlands. The VVD, whose forerunner was the Freedom Party, is a party of the centre-right, which promotes private enterprise and economic liberalism.
Mixed-member proportional representation is a mixed electoral system in which votes are cast for both local elections and also for overall party vote tallies, which are used to allocate additional members to produce or deepen overall proportional representation.
The 1996 New Zealand general election was held on 12 October 1996 to determine the composition of the 45th New Zealand Parliament. It was notable for being the first election to be held under the new mixed-member proportional (MMP) electoral system, and produced a parliament considerably more diverse than previous elections. Under the new MMP system, 65 members were elected in single-member districts by first-past-the-post voting, while a further 55 "top-up" members were allocated from closed lists to achieve a proportional distribution based on each party's share of the nationwide party vote.
Mana Wahine Te Ira Tangata was a small and short-lived political party in New Zealand. It was established by Alamein Kopu, a member of the New Zealand Parliament who had left her original party. After a short time as an independent MP, Kopu established Mana Wahine as her own party. It was officially registered on 12 June 1998.
Manu Alamein Kopu was a New Zealand politician.
An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, electorate, or (election) precinct, is a subdivision of a larger state created to provide its population with representation in the larger state's legislative body. That body, or the state's constitution or a body established for that purpose, determines each district's boundaries and whether each will be represented by a single member or multiple members. Generally, only voters (constituents) who reside within the district are permitted to vote in an election held there. District representatives may be elected by a first-past-the-post system, a proportional representative system, or another voting method. They may be selected by a direct election under universal suffrage, an indirect election, or another form of suffrage.
The 47th New Zealand Parliament was a term of the Parliament of New Zealand. Its composition was determined by the 2002 election, and it sat until 11 August 2005.
The 45th New Zealand Parliament was a term of the Parliament of New Zealand. Its composition was determined by the 1996 election, and it sat until the 1999 election.
Kenneth Xiaoxuan Wang is a former Deputy Leader of the ACT New Zealand party.
Māori politics is the politics of the Māori people, who were the original inhabitants of New Zealand and who are now the country's largest minority. Before the arrival of Pākehā (Europeans) in New Zealand, Māori society was based largely around tribal units, and chiefs provided political leadership. With the British settlers of the 19th century came a new British-style government. From the outset, Māori sought representation within this government, seeing it as a vital way to promote their people's rights and improve living standards. Modern Māori politics can be seen as a subset of New Zealand politics in general, but has a number of distinguishing features, including advocacy for indigenous rights and Māori sovereignty. Many Māori politicians are members of major, historically European-dominated political parties, but several Māori parties have been formed.
General elections were held in the Netherlands on 22 November 2006, following the fall of the Second Balkenende cabinet. The election proved relatively successful for the governing Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) which remained the largest party with 41 seats, a loss of only three seats. The largest increase in seats was for the Socialist Party (SP), which went from nine to 25 seats. The main opposition party, the social democratic Labour Party (PvdA) lost nine of its 42 seats, while the right-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and the progressive liberal Democrats 66 lost a considerable portion of their seats, six of 28 and three of six, respectively. New parties, such as the right-wing Party for Freedom (PVV) of former VVD MP Geert Wilders and the animal rights party Party for the Animals (PvdD) were also successful, with the PVV winning nine seats and the PvdD winning two, thereby becoming the first animal rights group to enter a European parliament.
In New Zealand politics, waka-jumping is a colloquial term for when a member of Parliament (MP) either switches political party between elections or when a list MP's party membership ceases.
Maria Cornelia Frederika "Rita" Verdonk is a Dutch politician and businesswoman formerly affiliated with the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and later Proud of the Netherlands (TON), which she founded in 2007. Since 2022, she has been a municipal councillor of The Hague, elected on the list led by Richard de Mos.
An electorate or electoral district is a geographical constituency used for electing a member (MP) to the New Zealand Parliament. The size of electorates is determined such that all electorates have approximately the same population.
The New Zealand electoral system has been mixed-member proportional (MMP) since the 1996 election. MMP was introduced following a referendum in 1993. It replaced the first-past-the-post (FPP) system New Zealand had previously used for most of its history. Under MMP, New Zealanders have two votes to elect members of Parliament (MPs). The first vote is for a candidate from an electorate. The second is the party vote – for the political party the voter wants to form the government.
Epsom is a New Zealand parliamentary electorate, returning one Member of Parliament to the New Zealand House of Representatives. As of the 2020 general election, its member of parliament is David Seymour, the leader of ACT New Zealand.
Mount Roskill is a parliamentary electorate in Auckland, New Zealand, returning one Member of Parliament (MP) to the New Zealand House of Representatives. Phil Goff of the Labour Party held the seat from the 1999 election until he resigned from Parliament on 12 October 2016 after contesting and being elected Mayor of Auckland on 8 October 2016 in the 2016 mayoral election. His resignation necessitated a byelection in this electorate which was won by Michael Wood.
The 2011 New Zealand voting system referendum was a referendum on whether to keep the existing mixed member proportional (MMP) voting system, or to change to another voting system, for electing Members of Parliament to New Zealand's House of Representatives. It was held on 26 November 2011 in conjunction with the 2011 general election.
The 50th New Zealand Parliament was elected at the 2011 general election. It had 121 members, and was in place from December 2011 until September 2014, followed by the 2014 general election. The first sitting of the 50th Parliament was held on 20 December 2011, where members were sworn in and Lockwood Smith was elected Speaker of the House. This was followed by the speech from the throne on 21 December. John Key continued to lead the Fifth National Government. Following the resignation of Smith, David Carter was elected Speaker.