Overhang

NRT talks about overhang

Peter Dunne has launched an attack on the Maori seats today, saying that they “distort democracy” and “pervert the will of the voters”. Unlike Rodney Hide, he is at least making principled arguments based on proportionality, rather than simply appealing to naked racism. At the same time, it has to be asked: why is he only talking about the Maori seats? Under MMP, any electorate can lead to an overhang. And yet the only time anyone ever mentions the word is when it relates to Maori representation.

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Dunne’s hypocrisy aside, I agree with the goal of eliminating overhangs to ensure proportionality.

I trust that he will be condemning this too.

That means that if you’re a Progressive voter the smart thing to do is to give your party vote to a different left-wing party, one that can benefit from it. Giving it to the Progressives is not going to help change the outcome for the Progressives.  But you can help the Greens or Labour get another seat.