PV (Preferential Voting)

There are 120 Members of Parliament. Each of the 120 electorates, including the Maori electorates, elects one MP.

Voters rank the candidates -- 1, 2, 3, etc -- in the order they prefer them.

A candidate who gets more than half of all the first preference votes (that is votes marked "1") wins.

If no candidate gets more than half the first preference votes, the candidate with the fewest number "1" votes is eliminated and their votes go to the candidates each voter ranked next.

This process is repeated until one candidate has more than half the votes.

Large parties -- and in particular the winning party -- usually win a share of the seats in Parliament larger than their nationwide share of the first preference votes. It is hard for smaller parties to win seats in Parliament, but votes for smaller party candidates may influence who wins the seat because of second, third, etc preferences.

A government can usually be formed without the need for coalitions or agreements between parties.

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