Electoral system of New Zealand
Party Name Short Name Date of Registration In Parliament
New Zealand National Party National Party 2 December 1994 Yes
New Zealand First NZ First 20 December 1994 Yes
ACT New Zealand The ACT Party 17 February 1995 Yes
New Zealand Labour Party Labour Party 17 February 1995 Yes
New Zealand Democratic Party for Social Credit Democrats for Social Credit 10 August 1995 No
Green Party of Aotearoa/New Zealand Green Party 17 August 1995 Yes
Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party The Cannabis Party 30 May 1996 No
Māori Party - 9 July 2004 No
Mana Movement - 24 June 2011 No
New Conservative - 6 October 2011 No
The Opportunities Party TOP 6 March 2017 No
New Zealand People 's Party NZPP 30 June 2017 No
New Zealand Outdoors Party - 11 August 2017 No
Political parties
As of September 2018 [ update ] , there are 13 registered political parties in New Zealand . [ 48 ]
The New Zealand electoral system has been mixed-member proportional (MMP) since 1996. MMP was introduced after a referendum in 1993. MMP replaced the first-past-the-post (FPP) system New Zealand had previously used for most of its history. New Zealand has a single-house legislature, the House of Representatives, usually with 120 members, although the number can increase because of (generally) one or two overhang seats, depending on the outcome of the electoral process. The 52nd Parliament, elected in 2017, has 120 seats: 71 were filled by electorate MPs, with the remaining 49 from ranked party lists.The term of the New Zealand Parliament is set at three years. In 1893, New Zealand was the first country in the world to give women the right to vote. This meant that theoretically, New Zealand had universal suffrage from 1893, meaning all adults 21 years of age and older were allowed to vote (in 1969 the voting age was lowered from 21 to 20. It was lowered again to 18 in 1974). However, the voting rules that applied to the European settlers did not apply to Māori, and their situation is still unique in that a number of seats in the New Zealand Parliament are elected by Māori voters alone. In contemporary New Zealand, generally all permanent residents and citizens over 18 are eligible to vote. The main exceptions are when a person has been living overseas continuously for too long, has been detained in a psychiatric hospital for more than three years after being charged with a criminal offence, or since 2010, is currently a sentenced prisoner.