Electoral Reform

Philip Temple, a highly respected commentator on electoral issues, has called for two changes to be made to MMP.

The first is to raise the threshold for qualifying for List MPs from one electorate seat to two electoraate seats. In Germany it is three.

The second is to remove the Maori seats, as recommended by the Royal Commission.

If both these changes applied to this election, the results would be:

Labour 53
National 52
NZ First 8
Green 7
United 1
Progressive 1

Total 122

Nat/NZF/Uni 61
Lab/Gre/Pro 61

This is assuming ACT won Epsom for tactical voting reasons, while Dunne and Anderton win even without the tactical advantage.