Posts by Phil Lyth
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Legal Beagle: The New Zealand Election Tax, in reply to Kyle Matthews,
I'd almost be in favour of requiring anyone that appears on a party list to stand an electorate (almost, but not quite).
IIRC, Georgina te Heuheu was a list-only candidate in five election 1996 - 2008 and never contested an electorate. (Now retiring.)
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Legal Beagle: The New Zealand Election Tax, in reply to Keir Leslie,
You get your deposit back a week after the election no matter how many votes you get. Still forces people to be a bit committed
Well there's a new idea. Graeme might consider including that in his submission to the (possible) review of MMP.
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Legal Beagle: The New Zealand Election Tax, in reply to Keir Leslie,
They are running purely for promotional reasons, not to win the election,
Can't say that I agree with you. Funnily enough I was discussing the point with an Electoral Commission staffer this afternoon: when registering a party or submitting a nomination, the Electoral Act has does not require that any reason be supplied.
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Exactly Sacha.
The Greens in particular - Graham, Ross I hope, Hughes I have seen in action in Ohariu - are good at the meet-the-candidate events they are invited to as electorate candidates - at asking specifically for the party vote.
At the Ohariu meeting I went along to, I also got to hear the Conservative, Libertarian and NZ First viewpoints from the respective candidates. Good on them.
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Legal Beagle: The New Zealand Election Tax, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
Some people have criticised the ease of registering a party in New Zealand: you only need 500 members.
I too am comfortable with that: entry is fairly easy so that, for example, Colin Craig can contest the election with the Conservative Party.
But there are ongoing requirements to retain registration, which seem to have a practical effect of keeping the real parties and allowing others to be deregistered. (Requirements are to annually: a) declare whether membership is over 500 b) declare whether the party intends to contest the next election and c) submit an audited return of donations.
About 37 parties have been registered and contested one or more elections since 1996, but are now deregistered. There are a few more which registered but never ran, IIRC.
In 2011 we have 13 parties with lists, and for nine, this is at least their 4th MMP election.
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And a check of electionresults.govt.nz suggests that in 2008 of 186 candidates for non-Parliamentary parties, and independents, only 10 got their deposits back.
176 lost their deposits ($52,800) - $7,500 more than lost by four Parliamentary parties.
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Ah yes: deposits in 2008 of Parliamentary parties:
ACT lost 55 deposits ($16,500), and recovered 4. Did not run in 11 other seats.
Greens lost 21 ($6,300) and recovered 39. Did not run in 10.
Progressive lost 25 ($7,500) and recovered 1.
United lost 50 ($15,000) and recovered 1.Maori Party, Labour and National recovered all deposits.
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Certainly the idea of discussing this election tax is worthwhile. To point out it also impacts parliamentary parties incl Greens, ACT and United, all of whom have candidates running list-vote-only campaigns and many of whom do not recover deposits. I used to have the numbers somewhere . . .
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Legal Beagle: Election Fact Check #8:…, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
watching political journalists trying to explain how their polls translate into seats under FPP
They wouldn’t even try to do so, but would just look to find a new Malcolm MacKerras to talk to an electoral pendulum. Brian Easton used to do them, oh, 25 years ago from memory.
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Legal Beagle: Infrequently asked questions, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
Were it to happen after the House had adjourned, but before the dissolution, I anticipate that the House would need to be recalled however, to pass a motion deciding not to hold one.
I had thought about that and considered that s129(2) would come into play - the writ for the issue of the by-election can be delayed for up to 21 days - and under s129(3) for another 21 days if thought necessary for special reason.
By that time the writ for the general election would have been issued, overtaking a by-election. But I am not a lawyer, so Graeme may have a thought.
For what it is worth, there has not been a by-election forced in NZ since 1900 by the death of a candidate (including MPs). (Have not gone further back.) Such byelections occur from time to time in the UK: eg in 2010
But there are quite a few cases where a NZ MP has died within a few months of a general election.