Pages tagged with: voting

When New Zealanders go to the polls on 26 November 2011, they will continue a 158-year-old tradition of parliamentary democracy in this country. Politics may have changed beyond recognition since 1853, but the cut and thrust of the campaign trail, the power of advertising, and the drama of polling day remain as relevant as ever.

In 1993 New Zealanders voted to replace their traditional first past the post (FPP) voting system with mixed member proportional representation (MMP). Eighteen years on, as Kiwis voted in a new electoral referendum, we explore how and why that dramatic reform came about.

Did one of your ancestors sign the giant 1893 petition calling for women’s right to vote? This historic document records the names of one in five New Zealand women at the time. Now you can search their names in an online database and contribute comments and information about them.

A history of the movement that won New Zealand women the vote in 1893

Even though New Zealand's electoral franchise (right to vote) was more generous than Britain's, the colony's early elections were in many ways small-scale replicas of those in the UK.

From 1853 until 1993 (apart from 1908–13) New Zealand elections were held under the first past the post (FPP) or plurality system.

Women's suffrage milestones from 1869 to 1999

Three years after the vote was won in 1893, a convention of representatives of 11 women's groups from throughout New Zealand resolved itself into the National Council of Women.

The New Zealand Parliament was alarmed by reports of electoral abuses in Auckland in the 1850s. It decided that electoral laws needed to be tightened, and in 1858 passed a series of reform acts, which defined and prohibited treating, bribery and exercising 'undue influence' over electors.

 

During the 1981 and 1984 campaigns, Labour promised to set up a Royal Commission to look into a wide range of issues relating to the electoral system.

Although a number of other territories enfranchised women before 1893, New Zealand can justly claim to be the first self-governing country to grant the vote to all adult women.

After the colour and controversy of the 1850s, election days in New Zealand have generally been orderly affairs. Even so, election nights could still be lively occasions.

Although only 55% of electors took part in a referendum, an overwhelming 85% voted to change their electoral system. In the second part of the poll, 70% favoured mixed member proportional representation (MMP). As Labour leader Mike Moore put it: 'The people didn't speak on Saturday. They screamed.'

The fall and rise of Maori seats in the 20th century

Given the printing technology of the time, early election posters and hoardings were inevitably simple.

The three years following the 1993 referendum, before the first MMP election in 1996, were ones of transition and uncertainty.

Cover of the 1986 Electoral Commission report

New Zealand was the first country in the world to grant women the vote. Kate Sheppard, leading light of the suffrage movement, was vindicated when 65% of New Zealand women took the chance to vote in their first general election.

New Zealand women went to the polls for the first time, just 10 weeks after the Governor signed the Electoral Act 1893, making this country the first in the world to enfranchise all adult women.