New Zealand MMP Crisis
- Conrad - 31/7/97

The Background
In October 1996 New Zealand had its first General Election under the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) System whereby voters had two votes - one for an electorate MP and one for a Party.

Thus the New Zealand Parliament consists of sixty electorate MPs and sixty MPs drawn from Party Lists to make the total number in proportion to the votes each Party received.

The Action
In July 1997 Alamein Kopu, a list MP for the Alliance Party, resigned from that Party to become an Independent MP.

The Issues

• This was in direct disregard to a pledge she had signed when entering Parliament stating that if she resigned from the Party then she would resign from Parliament altogether.
  Where's her integrity?

• She only got into Parliament in the first place because she was on the Alliance Party List and is not there because people directly voted her in (she had only the fourth highest number of votes in her electorate).
  Who does she think she represents?

• By her becoming an Independent, the New Zealand Parliament is no longer proportional to the votes cast in the election. The Alliance Party now has one MP fewer than the New Zealand public voted for. A percentage of Alliance voters whose votes entitled that Party to its share of MPs have been effectively disenfranchised.
  Is the New Zealand Parliament still constitutional?

• Many people believe she should be expelled and replaced by the next person on the Alliance Party list. However there is no provision for this in the legislation and this appears to be a loophole.
  How could the legislators not provide for such an obvious scenario?