Country: New Zealand Official Name: New Zealand Election Type: Parliamentary Date: November 8, 2008 Source for election date

At stake in this election:

• 122 seats in the House of Representatives

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: Queen ELIZABETH II *
• Head of Government: Prime Minister Helen CLARK
• Assembly: New Zealand has a unicameral House of Representatives with 122 seats.

* Represented by Governor General Anand SATYANAND since August 2006.

Description of electoral system:

• The Queen is hereditary N/A.
• Prime Minister is appointed by the governor-general.
• In the House of Representatives, 70 members are elected in single-member constituencies to serve 3-year terms and 52 members are elected by party-list system with proportional distribution of seats to serve 3-year terms.***

*** Seven Maori single-member constituencies are included in the 69 members elected by popular vote. In 2005, the total number of assembly seats increased to 121 because the Maori Party won one more electorate seat than its entitlement under the party vote.

Main parties in the of the electoral race:

• [[0.1.party_type]]: [[0.1.party_name]][[0.1.party_comments_note]]
  Leader: [[0.1.party_leader]]
  Seats won in this election: [[0.1.party_seats_won]]
  Seats won in last election: [[0.1.party_seats]]
• [[0.2.party_type]]: [[0.2.party_name]][[0.2.party_comments_note]]
  Leader: [[0.2.party_leader]]
  Seats won in this election: [[0.2.party_seats_won]]
  Seats won in last election: [[0.2.party_seats]]
• [[0.3.party_type]]: [[0.3.party_name]][[0.3.party_comments_note]]
  Leader: [[0.3.party_leader]]
  Seats won in this election: [[0.3.party_seats_won]]
  Seats won in last election: [[0.3.party_seats]]
• [[0.4.party_type]]: [[0.4.party_name]][[0.4.party_comments_note]]
  Leader: [[0.4.party_leader]]
  Seats won in this election: [[0.4.party_seats_won]]
  Seats won in last election: [[0.4.party_seats]]
• [[0.5.party_type]]: [[0.5.party_name]][[0.5.party_comments_note]]
  Leader: [[0.5.party_leader]]
  Seats won in this election: [[0.5.party_seats_won]]
  Seats won in last election: [[0.5.party_seats]]
• [[0.6.party_type]]: [[0.6.party_name]][[0.6.party_comments_note]]
  Leader: [[0.6.party_leader]]
  Seats won in this election: [[0.6.party_seats_won]]
  Seats won in last election: [[0.6.party_seats]]
• [[0.7.party_type]]: [[0.7.party_name]][[0.7.party_comments_note]]
  Leader: [[0.7.party_leader]]
  Seats won in this election: [[0.7.party_seats_won]]
  Seats won in last election: [[0.7.party_seats]]
• [[0.8.party_type]]: [[0.8.party_name]][[0.8.party_comments_note]]
  Leader: [[0.8.party_leader]]
  Seats won in this election: [[0.8.party_seats_won]]
  Seats won in last election: [[0.8.party_seats]]

****** Co-leaders of the Maori Party are MPs Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples

Last Parliamentary election:

• The last election for New Zealand's House of Representatives was held on September 17, 2005. The Labour Party (NZLP) won the election with some 50 seats, which required it to form a minority government with various coalition partners.

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 4,173,460 (July 2008 )
• Registered Voters: 2,990,759 (November 2008 )

Last Updated on 02/22/2006

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