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John Key backs MMP
By Steven | November 25, 2011
I think you should vote to retain MMP on Saturday. But don’t listen to me. Listen to John Key. “Every vote counts,” he said this morning. He’s right, and it’s one of the best features of MMP.
It’s not true (or not nearly as true) for any of the other voting systems. It’s not really true of SM, the system Key says he prefers.
Key has also been constantly telling us that he has delivered, and will deliver “strong, stable government”. Of course, that’s under MMP.
But the refrain from the anti-MMP crowd is that MMP is a recipe for instability.
Of course, MMP has also delivered a much more diverse Parliament. It has forced them to discuss and compromise over issues. Debates are informed by a good range of competing political viewpoints. Politics is more interesting. Parliament is no longer the lapdog of the executive.
And it’s fairer. Looking back on those elections where parties governed without majority support (or even an arrangement backed by parties with majority support) or got 20% of the vote and only two MPs…. it seems ridiculous that anyone would want to turn back the clock. I’m going to be ticking STV with my second referendum vote. It’s complicated, but generally fair.
I love having two votes – one for the party I like and one for the person I want to be able to turn to if I have a problem that a politician might be able to help with.
Of course, there are now no wasted votes in the safe electorates. As Key says, “Every vote counts”. He’ll go far, that fellow.
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