New Zealand votes for MMP
- When
- 6 November 1993
- Reach
- Nationwide
By 54 to 46 percent, voters replaced first-past-the-post with mixed-member proportional representation — largely as a punishment for a decade of unmandated reform.
Both major parties had campaigned on one programme and governed on another, and two elections in the 1980s had produced governments with fewer votes than their opponents. A royal commission had recommended MMP in 1986 and been ignored until a referendum was promised in a moment of carelessness. The first MMP election in 1996 produced a coalition, ended single-party dominance, and roughly doubled Māori and women’s representation in Parliament.
Regions affected
Sources
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Related
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