Sunday, November 09, 2008



Says it all

ACT New Zealand: 3.72% of the vote, 5 MPs
NZ First: 4.21% of the vote, no MPs.

This is simply absurd. The 5% threshold simply has to go.

(I'll do some number crunching on the various blocs and the size of the wasted vote tomorrow. But it is not a good result for democracy when over 100,000 New Zealanders are disenfranchised by an arbitrary rule designed to benefit the major parties. Every voice should count - even Winston's. And I'll be looking for an MP to take a member's bill to remove the threshold the moment Parliament convenes).