And on the source of MMP in Germany being a post WW2 limitation of power , that sounds rational to me. I will ask a couple of people to see what the common knowledge on this is here.

I’m more concerned about list candidates when they are electorate candidates who have been brought in on the list as electorate candidates with no support have effectively been voted out, yet are in! I hope you’re getting my meaning here. These are people who put themselves up for electorate candidature, got a tiny number of votes, but were brought in via the list.

Its potentially an issue with list-only candidates, too, but for the most part these people will have some sort of expertise, as you say.

I’m pretty sure the reason for MMP in Germany is as I wrote, I’m just being “correct” by offering my doubt since its not my area of expertise. I have seen this written, though, in an article exploring MMP a number of years ago. I’m relying on the accuracy of the journo, hence my caution…!!

I am currently living in Germany, so the last point is interesting for me. I just did a quick search, and it looks as though a pure proportional voting system was used during the Weimar republic, but the MMP style (or something quite close to that) system started around 1949. I have not yet found any info on why the changes were made. I will try and ask some of my friends.

Nick, I like the basic idea of MMP, but there a few wrinkles in MMP that I’d like tidied up all the same. For example, I think that just as there is a minimum threshold of votes for a party to be accepted, there should be a similar threshold for accepting an electoral candidate into parliament. In the past we’ve had candidates with literally fewer than a hundred votes against their name. In their case, in my opinion they’re essentially had a vote of no confidence from their own electorate, the people most likely to be able to judge them accurately.

Likewise, ideally list candidates need some sort of vetting.

The point I’m trying to get at is that in a small way part of the wishes of the voters are not represented accurately if appropriate checks are not in place.

I believe MMP was introduced into Germany as a way of preventing any one party having complete power, post WWII–?

I like the concept though. Its a bit like the science equivalent of the Greens, I guess.

But where’s the “Vote Science” party? We need a party for all scientists and like-minded people to put their party vote towards, who aim to stand as an in-parliament science advisory service for the nation. With (list) MPs representing each of the main branches of science relevant to NZ (Agriculture, Health, etc.), who aim to pick up the issues of the day from the house, bring to those issues the underlying issues and make parliament face them.

Hell, we might even have a science-based “king-maker” party

Next election, maybe…

If this is so, perhaps MMP is a more directly representative way of doing this.