New Zealand General Elections 14 October 2023

The New Zealand General Elections will be held on 14 October 2023. The New Zealand voting system allows for advance voting, the voting begun on 2 October 2023, until 7pm election day Saturday 14 October. I am sure that the polling booths around New Zealand will be busy on Saturday during the General Elections.

New Zealand General Elections are held every three years in New Zealand and the last elections was held on Saturday, 17 October 2020. The New Zealand Labour Party won the last two elections in 2017 and 2020 and held power for the past six years the New Zealand Prime Minister has been Jacinda Ardern and in January 2023 Chris Hopkins became the Prime Minister. The 2023 leader of the opposition the New Zealand National Party is Christopher Luxon.

For New Zealanders living, travelling, or working overseas, they can visit the NZ elections web page and check if they are eligible to vote in the upcoming New Zealand 2023 General Election. Some places have voting options for overseas. Here on Norfolk Island the voting option is online download if you are already enrolled on the New Zealand electoral rolls.

You can check online if you are enrolled at vote.nz.

or call NZ 0800 36 76 56 or +64 9 909 4182.

Email: overseas@vote.nz

Check out these internet sites for more details.

https://elections.nz/

2023 General Election | Vote NZ

How to vote from overseas | Vote NZ

I read that there are up to one million kiwis living overseas, representing 20% of New Zealand’s resident population and eligible voters. Almost 70% of our offshore citizens reside in Australia, which could mean up to half a million votes in the New Zealand election.

The New Zealand Parliament consist of a single chamber and the Governor General. The New Zealand electoral system is a MMP – the Mixed Member Proportional system. New Zealand has 120 MPs, members of parliaments, and seven of these are Māori representatives. Four Māori seats were established by the 1867 New Zealand Parliament to give Māori a direct say in Parliament, and there are now seven Māori Seats in the New Zealand Parliament.

New Zealand citizens and permanent residents who are aged 18 years and over are required to enrol to vote. Voting is not compulsory in New Zealand, but in Australia it is compulsory to vote. The New Zealand electoral system is a proportional system, which means that the proportion of votes a party gets will largely reflect the number of seats it has in parliament. Each voter gets two votes. Māori descents have the choice to enrol on the General Roll or Māori Roll. The first vote is called the Party vote, the voter chooses a political party the voter chooses. The second vote is to choose the MP the voter wants to represent the electorate they live in. This is called the electorate vote. The candidate who gets the most votes wins. They do not have to get more than half the votes.

New Zealand's first parliamentary elections were held in 1853. I read that at first, not everyone in New Zealand had the right to vote. But over the next half century New Zealand was to become one of the most democratic nations in the world. New Zealand was also one of the first countries to give women the right to vote in 1893, Kate Sheppard was a leader in women's suffrage and her picture is on the NZ $10:00 note. Pitcairn Island women were given the vote in 1838, many years before New Zealand.

If you are interested in learning more about the NZ General Elections or wish to cast a vote, remember to check out the online details, and vote by Saturday 14 October 2023.

Betty Matthews

13 October 2023