New Zealand Capital City Wellington Adopts Choice Voting in Ballot Measure

November 30, 2002

On November 30, 2002, voters in Wellington, New Zealand backed a change to the choice voting (also called "single transferable vote" system) for local elections in New Zealand's first referendum on electoral reform for local government. Choice voting won the support of 52% of the electorate in the referendum and will now be used in the 2004 local elections.

Phil Saxby of the New Zealand Electoral Reform Coalition was delighted with the result, remarking that "If you can get 40,000 people to vote on an issue like this, I see that as a victory." Councillor David Zwartz said Wellingtonians had voted for a fairer voting system that will provide better representation. He hoped Wellington Regional Council would follow suit. "That would simplify everything and help reduce costs," he said.

Seven additional local councils in New Zealand have already decided to use to choice voting for local government. There are likely to be further polls in 2003. In Banks Peninsula Council over 5% of the local population have signed a petition calling for a choice voting referendum and this is likely to be held in March. Petitions are close to receiving 5% support in Dunedin and Christchurch.

It should be noted that New Zealand has adopted choiced voting by Meek's method as the optional alternative electoral system to the current first-past-the-post system for local elections. For further information, see www.stv.govt.nz (the official government website) and www.stvnz.org (the website of the New Zealand Electoral Reform Coalition). You can download a brochure (in .pdf format) from the pro-choice voting campaign.