Stephnie de Ruyter is a former leader of the New Zealand Democratic Party, a small centre-left New Zealand political party based upon Social Credit economics. [1] The Democrats, who, in June 2018, returned to campaigning under the name Social Credit [2] are currently outside Parliament.
While the Democratic Party was a member of the Alliance, de Ruyter served as an Alliance candidate. In the 1999 election, she was the Alliance's candidate for the Invercargill electorate, and was ranked twenty-second on the party's list. [3] She was not elected. Later, when the Democrats joined Jim Anderton to establish the breakaway Progressive Coalition, de Ruyter took an active role in building the new party. By the time of the 2002 election, de Ruyter was deputy leader of the Democrats and was ranked fifth on the Progressive list. She also stood as the Progressive Coalition's candidate in Invercargill. Once again, she was not elected.
Not long after the 2002 election, the Democrats opted to leave the Progressive Coalition and reestablish themselves as an independent party. The leader of the Democrats, Grant Gillon, along with the former leader John Wright, unsuccessfully urged the party to remain a member of the Progressive Coalition. De Ruyter was elected leader on Gillon standing down and John Wright also leaving.
De Ruyter has also been involved in local-body politics in Invercargill, standing for election to the Southland health board.
A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election. A party not having majority is common under proportional representation, but not in nations with majoritarian electoral systems.
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The Alliance was a left-wing political party in New Zealand. It was formed at the end of 1991 by the linking of four smaller parties. The Alliance positioned itself as a democratic socialist alternative to the centre-left New Zealand Labour Party. It was influential throughout the 1990s, but suffered a major setback after its founder and leader, Jim Anderton, left the party in 2002, taking with him several of its members of parliament (MPs). After the remaining MPs lost their seats in the 2002 general election, some commentators predicted the demise of the party.
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The New Zealand Social Credit Party was a political party that was New Zealand's third party from the 1950s to the 1980s. It won representation in the New Zealand House of Representatives, holding one seat at times between 1966 and 1981, and two seats from 1981 to 1987. While Social Credit once had significant support, particularly as a protest vote, it was disadvantaged by first-past-the-post voting as it had no geographically concentrated vote. Its most identifiable leaders were Vernon Cracknell (1963-70), who served just one term in parliament, and the household name Bruce Beetham, who rebuilt the party into a significant political force. At its zenith under Beetham in 1981, Social Credit achieved 20.7% of the vote.
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Matthew Peter Robson is a New Zealand politician. He was deputy leader of the Progressive Party, and served in the Parliament from 1996 to 2005, first as a member of the Alliance, then as a Progressive.
John Wright is a former New Zealand politician. He was a member of parliament from 1996 to 2002, representing the Alliance. Before entering Parliament he owned the Port-a-Loo company.
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The Social Credit-NZ party was a political party in New Zealand which split from the New Zealand Democratic Party in 1988.
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