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06:38
Restrictions
06:31
When we will know who has won
Updated
06:21
More than 1.9 million people voted early
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, a record number of voters chose to cast an early or early vote this year, with more than 1.9 million people, or 57% of the registered population, already voting.
That’s nearly three out of five of those enrolled. The majority of these votes should be counted reasonably quickly.
By the end of Friday, more than 1.9 million New Zealanders had cast an advance vote. This compared to a total of 1.24 million early votes in 2017, which in itself was a record.
follower of the electoral law
(@henrycooke)234,000 people voted yesterday, bringing the total early voting tantalizingly close to 2 million: 1,976,996 in all. That’s 57% of the registered population and 75% of the total votes in 2017. pic.twitter.com/61jBiRm9TL
follower of the electoral law
(@henrycooke)Here it is with election days included. pic.twitter.com/8cVmWbfeN1
Updated
06:12
More on how Aotearoa New Zealand’s MMP system works:
Any party that obtains more than 5% of the party’s votes, or that wins at least one electorate, is entitled to its share of the remaining 48 deputies on the list. Parties that do not meet this threshold do not win seats.
The list is designed to compensate for the lack of proportionality in local constituencies, so this will generally mean that parties that do not win electorates will win a higher proportion of the parliamentarians on the list.
The electorates are divided into 65 general electorates and 7 Maori electorates. Maori voters can choose every five years whether they are registered on the general list or on the Maori list, and the number of Maori seats is determined based on the number of voters who register on this special list. The 7 Maori electorates cover the entire country, so each part of the country is part of two electorates.
A redistribution since the 2017 elections added a new seat on the North Island. The North Island is covered by 49 general electorates, while the South Island is covered by sixteen.
06:09
MMP: how the electoral system works
New Zealand elects its parliament using the mixed member proportional system, which involves electing local MPs to represent an electorate and then electing alternate MPs representing the entire country to ensure that the parliament as a whole is proportional.
A party or coalition needs 61 of the 120 seats in Parliament, usually around 48% of the vote, to form a government.
Voters get two votes: a “candidate vote” to elect their local deputy and a “party vote” to decide proportions in parliament. 72 local MPs are elected using first after office to represent an electorate.
This means that minority parties often play an influential role in determining which main party rules.
05:59
What to expect
Kia pray and welcome to our live coverage of the New Zealand elections.
My name is Helen sullivan and I’ll bring you the results and reactions as they come in once the polls close in an hour at 7pm NZDT.
Until then, the New Zealand General Election rules mean that we cannot post or broadcast anything that may influence voters.
This means that we cannot comment on who is likely or unlikely to win, for example.
What we can do over the next hour is explain, for those of you who don’t know, how Aotearoa’s mixed member proportional electoral system (MMP) works, as well as take a look at some of the key issues of the referendum on the table.
We may be able to give you an update or two on the candidates, as they too stay away from any campaign, according to the law of the land.
Throughout the night, you can contact me at Twitter @helenrsullivan.
My Kiwi colleagues Eleanor Ainge Roy, Charlotte Graham-McLay and Phil Taylor will bring us live updates on Labor, National and Green election events.
Election analyst Ben Raue will bring us, well, electoral analysis.
Results should start coming in immediately after 7pm
Updated
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