The information in this section of the online version of New Zealand Electoral Facts & Stats 2008 is subject to change from the printed version.

Electoral law

Electoral law is found in the Constitution Act 1986, Electoral Act 1993, Broadcasting Act 1989, and the Electoral Finance Act 2007. There are also Electoral Regulations.

Political parties

In order to contest the party vote under MMP a party must be registered with the Electoral Commission. Unregistered parties may only contest electorate seats at a general election or by-election.  The main requirements for registration are having: 

• a name that is not likely to cause offence or confusion, which does not refer to a title or honour, or is too long to fit on the ballot paper 
• 500 or more current financial members eligible to enrol as electors 
• a Party Secretary and an Auditor.

A registered party is required to: 

• have rules providing for the democratic participation of members in candidate selection 
• make annual declarations of having at least 500 current financial members and the intent to contest elections
• disclose donations exceeding $10,000
• make post election expense declarations.

Registration applications are processed free of charge. Processing usually involves the public notification by the Electoral Commission of the application in major newspapers and on the Elections NZ website.

Party logos

A party logo registered with the Electoral Commission will be printed on the ballot paper for parties contesting the party vote and for electorate candidates of both registered and unregistered parties. The criteria for registration is that the logo is not indecent, offensive, misleading or confusing, and does not refer to a title or honour or infringe intellectual property rights. The registered party logo is the only one that the Parliamentary Service permits for use on material produced for MPs using parliamentary funding. Registration does not give formal intellectual property rights beyond the right for the logo to appear on ballot papers. Registration applications are processed free of charge. Processing usually involves the public notification by the Electoral Commission of the application in major newspapers and on the Elections NZ website.

Electorates

Under MMP some MPs are elected to represent a local area, called an electorate. Each place in New Zealand is within one general electorate and one Mäori electorate. There are 63 general electorates and seven Māori electorates in place for the 2008 and 2011 general elections.

Electorate boundaries are reviewed and may be redrawn every five years, after a census and Māori Electoral Option. This job is done by the Representation Commission. Boundaries are redrawn to ensure that every electorate contains within 5% of a target total population (not just registered electors), regardless of geographic size. The target population size for an electorate is determined by dividing the general electoral population of the South Island by 16. Boundaries must be drawn taking into account communities of interest (including tribal affiliations for Māori electorates), communications facilities, topographical features, and projected population changes. Proposed electorate names and boundaries are announced with a one-month public objection period and then a two-week counter objection period before they are finalised.

A census was taken on 7 Mar ’06.

A Māori Electoral Option was run from 3 Apr – 2 Aug ’06, during which:

• An additional 14,914 Mäori enrolled on the Māori Roll (new enrolments and net result of roll type changes)
• 4,634 fewer Māori enrolled on the General Roll (new enrolments and net result of roll type changes)
• A total of 385,977 people who have identified themselves as Māori are now enrolled to vote
• 14,294 moved from the General Roll to the Māori Roll
• 7,294 moved from the Māori Roll to the General Roll

The net result of the census and Māori Electoral Option was that the number of Māori seats remained at seven and the number of North Island general seats increased by one to 47. The number of list seats was reduced by one to 50 to maintain a parliament of 120. The target populations set were: North Island General Electorates, 57,243 ±2,862; South Island General Electorates, 57,562 ±2,878; Māori Electorates, 59,583 ±2,979.

The Representation Commission finalised new boundaries in Sep ’07, with the new North Island seat of Botany created in the south of Auckland, nine electorates gaining new names to reflect significant changes, seven electorates’ boundaries remaining unchanged, and macrons were added to the names of 11 electorates.

The Representation Commission will next reconvene and review boundaries following the 2011 census and a Māori Electoral Option due in 2012 (which will be delayed from 2011 by the general election expected that year).

Candidates

Candidates are people nominated for election. A candidate has to be a New Zealand citizen and enrolled as an elector. Electorate candidates compete for the electorate vote. An electorate candidate does not have to be an elector in that electorate, or on the same (general or Māori) roll type, but they cannot be a candidate in more than one electorate. List candidates are nominated on the party list, which lists candidates in the order the party wants to see the candidates elected to parliament. A person can be both an electorate candidate and a list candidate – sometimes called a dual candidate. Candidates representing unregistered political parties or standing as independent candidates may only stand in electorates.

Each electorate candidate pays a deposit of $300 which will be returned if they win five percent or more of the electorate votes cast and they have filed their return of expenses and donations. To nominate a party list the party pays a deposit of $1,000 which will be returned if it wins 0.5 percent or more of all party votes or one electorate seat, and it has filed its return of election expenses.

Third Parties

In 2008 individuals or groups who: were not parties or candidates, wanted to use election advertising to encourage votes in a particular way, were spending more than $1000 in respect of an electorate candidate or $12,000 overall between 1 January and election day were required to list as a third party with the Electoral Commission and provide post-election returns of expenses and donations.

Electoral system

The allocation is done using the Sainte Laguë formula as follows:
1. Create a table with the name and number of party votes received for each party crossing the threshold at the top of each column.
2. Divide the number of votes in each column of the top row by every odd number (1, 3, 5…) and list these answers (called quotients) down the column. (Keep going until the highest 120 quotients (representing the seats in parliament) can be identified.)
3. Find the highest 120 quotients. The number of quotients each party has in the highest 120 is the number of seats (MPs) it gets in parliament.

Campaigning, election expenses and disclosure

Electoral law regulates election advertising by parties, candidates and others in the lead up to an election. The law changed for the 2008 general election and the government has indicated further change for 2011.

Campaign regulation generally prescribes a definition of what activities or characteristics make them election advertising and subject to limits on when they may happen or appear and the maximum advertising spend permissible, along with the need for clear identification of whoever is responsible for an advertisement.

The spending limits in 2008 and previous elections have been: $20,000 by electorate candidates contesting the electorate vote; and $1m for registered parties contesting the list vote increased by $20,000 for each electorate candidate stood by the party. These amounts include GST. The Electoral Commission allocates money and time to parties for broadcast election advertising and addresses broadcast on a state-owned television channel and radio station (2008: $3,211,875 including GST, 72 minutes for opening addresses, 30 minutes for closing addresses.)

Donations and disclosure

Donations to political parties, candidates and listed third parties are all regulated, with returns of donations above certain limits made available for public inspection online and at the Electoral Commission’s offices. There are limits on the size of foreign donations ($1,000), the size of anonymous donations ($1,000), and rules relating to the public disclosure of donations. In all cases, donations exceeding $1,000 must come with information identifying every contributor of more than $1,000 to the sum handed to the beneficiary so that the recipient can aggregate donations from the same donor and report donations appropriately.

People wanting to donate more than $1,000 anonymously to a political party or third party may do so through the Electoral Commission, although limits apply in each electoral cycle to the amounts which an individual can give to any party ($32,000) or third party ($1800) and the total a party ($240,000) or third party ($12,000) can receive via this route. Aggregated payments are made to recipients monthly, except the payment frequency is weekly between the issue and return of a writ for election.

Each:

• registered political party must make an annual return to the Electoral Commission of party donations received worth more than $10,000. Returns covering each calendar year are due no later than 30 April of following year. Parties are also required to make immediate disclosure where a donor gives more than $20,000 to it in a 12 month period. 
• listed third party must make a return to the Electoral Commission of donations received for the purposes of its election campaign exceeding $5,000. This return is due at the same time as the third party’s election expense return. 
• electorate candidate must make a return to the Chief Electoral Officer of donations received exceeding $1,000 as part of the candidate’s post-election return of expenses and donations. 
   

Electoral administration

New Zealand has three permanent electoral agencies.  Local body elections are run by the local bodies with rolls provided by the Electoral Enrolment Centre.

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