{"id":346666,"date":"2026-03-25T07:35:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T07:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/346666\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T07:35:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T07:35:13","slug":"more-young-people-want-to-vote-in-new-zealands-maori-electorates-what-are-they-and-how-do-they-work-new-zealand-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/346666\/","title":{"rendered":"More young people want to vote in New Zealand\u2019s M\u0101ori electorates. What are they and how do they work? | New Zealand politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

More young people have signed up to vote in M\u0101ori electorates, new figures from the electoral commission show, as New Zealand<\/a> prepares for an election this year.<\/p>\n

The rise comes after years of tense relations between Indigenous New Zealanders and the centre-right coalition government. The latest figures show 58% of eligible 18- to 24-year-olds have registered for the M\u0101ori<\/a> roll, up from 50% in 2023.<\/p>\n

What are the M\u0101ori electorates? How do they work \u2013 and how certain is their future in the New Zealand political landscape?<\/p>\n

What are the M\u0101ori electorates?<\/p>\n

There are seven M\u0101ori electorates \u2013 or seats \u2013 in New Zealand\u2019s 120-seat parliament. You need to be M\u0101ori to vote in these electorates, but anyone can stand in these seats.<\/p>\n

The electorates tend to be geographically huge, spanning multiple tribes and districts. The seat of Te Tai Tonga, for example, covers the entire South Island, Rakiura\/Stewart Island and much of Wellington city \u2013 about 151,723 sq km (58,580 sq miles).<\/p>\n

When anyone of M\u0101ori descent registers to vote, they choose whether to be on the M\u0101ori roll or the general roll.<\/p>\n

The electoral commission said 54% of eligible voters had registered as of March for the M\u0101ori roll \u2013 up from 51% in 2023 when the last election was held.<\/p>\n

Like everybody else, people who are registered on the M\u0101ori roll get only two votes: one for their preferred political party and another for their constituency MP. They cannot vote for a general electorate MP.<\/p>\n

How long have M\u0101ori electorates been around?<\/p>\n

When New Zealand first held elections in 1853, only men who owned land were able to vote. But M\u0101ori owned land communally, which rendered them ineligible.<\/p>\n

As a temporary workaround, four special M\u0101ori seats, divided into geographic districts, were introduced in 1867. The number remained fixed until the mid-1990s, when they increased to five, and then the current seven in 2002.<\/p>\n

In the 1980s, a royal commission proposed abolishing the seats if New Zealand moved to an electoral system of proportional representation, which it did in the 1990s. It suggested the influx of new parties under a proportional system would increase M\u0101ori representation.<\/p>\n

But after a strong campaign from many M\u0101ori organisations, the seats were retained when New Zealand adopted its new system \u2013 mixed-member proportional representation (MMP) \u2013 which was established to stop the horse race between the two major parties and more fairly distribute seats to smaller parties based on their share of the votes.<\/p>\n

However, the minor populist party New Zealand First, in arguing for the seats\u2019 abolition, says M\u0101ori representation has grown to record levels with MMP: the current parliament has 33 MPs of M\u0101ori descent.<\/p>\n

map of M\u0101ori electorates in New Zealand <\/a>How do the M\u0101ori seats tend to swing?<\/p>\n

The M\u0101ori electorates have tended to lean towards leftwing parties, but they have hardly been a safe zone for Labour.<\/p>\n

When the Labour government passed controversial land legislation in the early 2000s, M\u0101ori outrage saw the birth of the M\u0101ori party, Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori, in 2005. Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori went on to support the National government after 2008.<\/p>\n

Its support withered away until it was ejected from parliament completely in 2017, when all of the seats were claimed by Labour. Since then, the seats have largely been a jostle between Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori and Labour.<\/p>\n

The other major party, centre-right National, has tended to struggle in the seats, refusing to run candidates at all between 2002 and 2023, although it has said it plans to stand candidates in the seats again this year.<\/p>\n

Why do the M\u0101ori electorates divide opinion?<\/p>\n

Debate over the existence of the M\u0101ori seats has existed for about as long as the seats themselves, and it\u2019s a question that flares during most elections.<\/p>\n

But with M\u0101ori making up less than 20% of the New Zealand population, putting them to a referendum would mean their future would be largely decided by non-M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n

That has raised questions similar to those heard during the Voice referendum in Australia, over whether the rights of a minority should be put to a vote by the majority.<\/p>\n

In 2014, the former National prime minister John Key, when asked by the New Zealand Herald whether he would abolish the seats, said it was an issue he wouldn\u2019t go near. \u201cDo you really want to rip a country apart?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

New Zealand\u2019s minister of foreign affairs, Winston Peters, said in February there was \u2018a record number of M\u0101ori in parliament and in cabinet\u2019. Photograph: Mick Tsikas\/AAP<\/p>\n

NZ First\u2019s leader and foreign affairs minister, Winston Peters, first campaigned for a M\u0101ori seat in 1975. After the 1996 election, NZ First represented all the M\u0101ori seats. But in recent years, Peters has turned instead to calling for their abolition.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the M\u0101ori seats have enough people who support them then they could be retained. But the fact is, we currently have a record number of M\u0101ori in parliament and in cabinet,\u201d Peters said in February.<\/p>\n

Another partner in the governing coalition, Act, also supports getting rid of M\u0101ori seats. But the prime minister, Christopher Luxon, said it had not been discussed by his caucus.<\/p>\n

Opposition parties have condemned the proposal, with the Labour MP Kieran McAnulty calling it \u201ca cheap and cynical attempt to try and get some cheap votes\u201d, before adding that it should be M\u0101ori who decide the future of the seats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More young people have signed up to vote in M\u0101ori electorates, new figures from the electoral commission show,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-346666","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}