New Zealand polls

DEMOCRACY works, and it works well, in New Zealand. On Sept. 20, Kiwis went to the polls to vote for members of Parliament. The voter turnout was 77 percent or 2,405,652. The country uses the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) voting system. A voter is allowed two votes, one for the electorate (equivalent to a district) and one for the party. It took me only less than a minute to cast a vote, as all that was needed was check the name of the preferred candidate and that of the preferred party. The ballot boxes were made of carton. A friend of mine who volunteered as election officer said that he had his assigned box and the ballots given to him one week earlier, and he just kept these in his house. There were no policemen, no Namfrel- l i ke volunteers, and I only saw one watcher in the polling place.

The voting closed as 7 p.m. By about 8:30 p.m. most of the votes had been counted and reported on television. It was nearly 10 p.m. when the results placed the National Party (of Prime Minister John Key) far ahead of the Labour Party. The latter’s leader, David Cunliffe, conceded by calling Key. Cunliffe then proceeded to the party headquarters to deliver his speech congratulating the Prime Minister.

In less than 30 minutes, John Key made his victory speech before party members broadcast throughout the nation. By Sunday morning, there were no more signs of elections, as each party was tasked to remove their campaign signs on the evening prior to election day.

One of the admirable characteristics of the New Zealand elections is the transparency of the parties’ stand on public issues. In this election, the focus was on how they would address the need of many Kiwis to buy their first homes. Not only did the major parties, National and Labour, presented their plan, they had to bare how they would finance this.

John Key, who has served for six years as Prime Minister, was able to convince the voters of his plans, while Cunliffe (who became leader of Labour for one year) struggled with the left-of-center Greens. For the first time since 1994, one party (National) is able to govern alone, having obtained a majority in the Parliament (with 61 seats), plus it has three minor parties, Maori, ACT and United First on its side.

I voted for Conservative Party that obtained 4.12 percent of the total party votes but failed to secure the threshold of five percent that would have guaranteed at least five seats in Parliament. The Conservatives, though, can now officially claim of being the fifth most important political party in New Zealand after National, Labour, the Greens and NZ First.

The challenge for the National Party is to deliver the election promises, most importantly for first-home owners with the KiwiSaver HomeStart Grant that would double the support for buying a new home. National wants to obtain more savings by tightening the government sector and putting more money in improving teacher quality. The party is saying “let us maintain the status quo and add a few, and everything will be alright.”

It will be interesting how the next three years will work out, but surely all parties would want New Zealand to be prosperous, peaceful and democratic.