新西兰英语 521 Minor Political Parties

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　　Are the minor² political parties important? That depends on how many votes they get. In the last election, National won 45% of the vote and Labour won 34%. National was able to form a government because it had the support of two minor parties, the Maori Party and ACT.

　　In the same election, the Green Party won 7% of the party vote. This gave them 9 seats. This was enough for a coalition³ with National but the Greens do not usually agree with National Party policies. The Greens are closer to Labour but 34% and 7% is only 41% and this is not a majority.

　　Election Vocabulary

　　Minor parties are the smaller ones. They probably cannot win a majority of the votes.

　　A majority is more than half.

　　There is only one candidate from each party in an electorate⁴.

　　There are 63 general electorates⁵ and 7 Maori electorates. This is a total of 70 electorates.

　　A poll before elections is often a telephone vote

　　You go to a polling booth to vote

　　In a coalition government, a smaller party or parties supports the main party

　　You are eligible to vote when you are 18 years old, and are a Permanent Resident or a New Zealand citizen and have lived in NZ for 1 year or more

　　How do you know what party and candidate to vote for?

　　Nearly all political parties and candidates have a website.

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