Each registered voter (including us) was sent a voting card. This card was given to a voting inspector at our local polling place. It was compared against the list of voters and our names and residence were asked. We then received our ballot and were able to vote for one party and one person. The parties were:
Act New Zealand
Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party
Ban 1080
Conservative
Democrats for Social Credit
Green Party
Internet Party
Labour Party
Mana Party
Maori Party
National Party
New Zealand First Party
New Zealand People's Party
NZ Outdoors Party
The Opportunities Party (TOP)
United Future
An example of a poster for Labour
An example of a National Poster.
We live in the Te Atatu area so if we voted Labour, this would be our candidate.
We voted here.
This is right next to Summerland School.
The voting booths. I asked permission to take this photo. It was allowed since no one was voting at the time.
I'm writing this on Sunday afternoon, the 24th. The results were:
The National Party got 46% of the vote and therefore 58 seats in Parliament.
Labour got 35.8% and 45 seats.
NZ First got 7.5% and 9 seats.
Greens got 5.9% and 7 seats.
ACT got 0.5% and 1 seat.
Obviously, the election process here is very different than at home. I am by no means an expert and hesitate to try to describe how the system works. A much better way to find out about it if you are interested is to go to the link below. It has everything you'd want to know. -djf
http://www.elections.org.nz/events/2017-general-election
I counted 16 parties in your list. WOW! Some of those seem utterly ridiculous and I'm glad they didn't get any seats, yet without knowing what the winning parties and candidates stand for, I'm hoping they won't be as ridiculous as politics back here in the States.
ReplyDeleteI think it's so cool that you can vote in NZ. Hope your party won.