Thursday, November 13, 2008

MMP Question of the Week

For those would like to dump MMP and return to FPP, I'd like to know your answers to some questions. I'll be asking them over the coming weeks.

Question 1:

Why do you want to vote for only one MP locally, when MMP lets you do that, AND vote for dozens more nationally?


4 comments:

  1. Good question. And under FPP why should I have my one vote made ineffective just because I live in Helensville!

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  2. Undergroundnetwork: An upcoming question! :-)

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  3. I understand what you're saying, and I'm a supporter of MMP (with a few changes), but I haven't actually heard anybody say that they want to return to FPP and I'm trying to figure out where this meme is coming from.

    If there is a referendum on MMP, I would expect there will be another Royal Commission to research the alternatives. If we get a better system, great, but I really don't see us returning to any pluraity-based representation system.

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  4. Chris S: National have been saying they want to return to FPP since 1996. I'm surprised you're having any trouble finding that out. Sure, John Key has said he prefers Supplementary Member (SM)..and why wouldn't he. SM gives the two major parties a huge boost as they would win 80% of the "extra" list seats as well as all those won under FPP locally.

    Whereas a minor party might win 2 seats for 10% of the total vote....in a 120 seat Parliament where only 20 seats are allocated proportionally.

    A vote for National or Labour would be worth 1.2 while a vote for a minor party would be degraded to 0.2

    SM is welfare for the seat rich...by stealing from the already seat-poor.

    No wonder John Key likes it. You can win a majority in the House with 40% of the vote. Yay! (not).

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