Kōrero: Electoral systems

Since the implementation of the mixed-member proportional (MMP) electoral system in New Zealand, no single party has won more than half the seats in the House of Representatives. As a result, all the governments formed under MMP have been coalitions. In this picture Helen Clark, prime minister and leader of the Labour Party, and Jim Anderton, Alliance Party leader and deputy prime minister, hold up copies of the coalition agreement they signed shortly after the 1999 general election. The Labour–Alliance coalition was a minority government: it had 59 seats (49 Labour seats and 10 Alliance seats) in the 120-member Parliament.