At stake in this election:

• 120 seats in the House of Representatives

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: Queen ELIZABETH II *
• Head of Government: Prime Minister Helen Elizabeth CLARK
• Assembly: New Zealand has a unicameral House of Representatives with 120 seats.

* Represented by Governor General Dame Silvia CARTWRIGHT (since 4 April 2001).
The monarchy is hereditary.

Description of electoral system:

• The Queen is hereditary.
• The Prime Minister is appointed by the governor-general.
• In the House of Representatives, 69 members are elected by plurality vote in single-member constituencies to serve 3-year terms and 51 members are allocated through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 3-year terms.***

*** New Zealand has a mixed-member proportional system in which voters have two votes: a 'party vote' and an 'electorate vote'. Within this system, 69 members are elected by simple majority vote in single-member constituencies. The remaining 51 members of the House of Representative are elected from nationwide party lists, according to each party's share of all the party votes. All members serve 3-year terms.

Main parties in the electoral race:

• Party: Labour Party (NZLP)
  • Leader: Helen Elizabeth CLARK
  • Seats won in this election: 52
  • Seats won in last election: 49
• Party: National Party (NP)
  • Leader: Bill ENGLISH
  • Seats won in this election: 27
  • Seats won in last election: 39
• Party: New Zealand First Party (NZFP)
  • Leader: Winston PETERS
  • Seats won in this election: 27
  • Seats won in last election: 5
• Party: ACT New Zealand
  • Leader: Richard PREBBLE
  • Seats won in this election: 9
  • Seats won in last election: 9
• Party: Green Party of Aotearoa
  • Leader: Jeanette FITZSIMONS
  • Seats won in this election: 9
  • Seats won in last election: 7
• Party: United Future New Zealand
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 8
  • Seats won in last election: N/A
• Party: The Progressive Coalition Party*******
  • Leader: Jim ANDERTON
  • Seats won in this election: 2
  • Seats won in last election: N/A
• Party: Others
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 0
  • Seats won in last election: N/A

******* The Progressive Coalition Party split from the Alliance after the 1999 elections.

Last Parliamentary election:

• Parliamentary elections were last held November 27, 1999.
  Seats decided in the last election: 120

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 3,948,500 (2002)
• Registered Voters: 2,670,030 (2002)

Gender Data:

·         Female Population: 2,013,568 (2002)

·         Is New Zealand a signatory to CEDAW: Yes (17 July 1980)

·         Has New Zealand ratified CEDAW: Yes (10 January 1985)

·         Gender Quota: No

·         Female candidates in this election: Yes

·         Number of Female Parliamentarians: 34 (following the 2002 elections)

·         Human Development Index Position: 9 (2014)

·         Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: N/A

Disability Data:

·         Is New Zealand a signatory to CRPD: Yes (30 March 2007)

·         Has New Zealand ratified CRPD: Yes (25 September 2008)

·         Population with a disability: 592,275 (est.)