Why the NZ Left won’t use MMP to win the 2026 election (this is why we can’t have nice things)
National are passing voter suppression laws that will stop special votes 13 days before the election, this impacts hundreds of thousands of voters, 75% of which usually vote left. It is an enormous gerrymander and is a reminder of just how focused the Right are when it comes to winning.
They have have used the features of NZ MMP to ensure they win, the Left in NZ however refuse to ever, ever, ever use MMP to win, and that’s why we always lose.
I love MMP.
Built into its DNA are MMP coat tailing and overhangs which acknowledged the 5% threshold cut off, the Right have always used these, the Left in its purity refuses to.
It is sad because right now there are 2 MMP strategies that could win and ensure a truly progressive Government but the egos of the Left refuse to work together.
I have a meme
That one day the Political Left in Aotearoa New Zealand, can sort their shit out enough to see that there is more common ground between us than the narcissism of petty policy difference.
I dream this Summer that the Labour, Greens and MāoriParty can meet for an early election year hui to present a united front that includes an individualised electorate voting strategy to maximise MMP and an agreed basic policy platform.
For the love of the risen Baby Jesus, this anti-Māori, anti-Treaty, anti-worker, anti-renter, anti-beneficiary, anti-disability, anti-environment Government is too dangerous to hand a second term to, but it’s not enough to win through apathy, the Left needs an electorate mandate from the People to make the transformational change we all voted Jacinda in to achieve.
We are all still waiting for that transformative change Jacinda promised us in 2017.
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Its no longer ‘left’ or ‘right’ voting its simply the ‘aware’ or ‘unaware’ voting.
It’s almost like there’s nothing left-wing about Chris Hipkins
so if you’ve left it until “Election Day” and you’re outside your electorate you can’t cast a special vote?
Agree Clive.
Sad Jonzie.
There’s something in what you say no doubt but the sad fact is that your assertion that the Labour Party is on the left is clearly wrong! The Labour party is a centrist party and not a genuine agent of change. The Greens have tried to work with Labour in the past and the Labour party has taken great pleasure in cutting them out of any decision making.