What MMP is really about - please please please consider your vote wisely and when voting ask "who do I want National or Labour to work with after the election?"

As the New Zealand election is nearing and being held in 15 days I feel it is vitally important to discuss MMP and what it is about.

MMP is mixed member proportion.  What that means is that instead of having an FPP system like Australia, where it's the Liberals or the Australian Labor Party, New Zealand has a system which gives people two votes.  One of those votes is for the party and the other is for the electorate candidate in the area in which you live.

The aim of MMP is to force the major parties, in New Zealand's case, National and Labour, to work with minor parties like Act, United Future, Mana, the Greens (which are a major minor party) or NZ First etc.  The purpose of working with multiple parties is so that the major parties do not have absolute power and are held accountable by minor parties.  It ensures that a range of views are represented, and not just one or two.  It ensures that the major parties are kept honest, and for the most part it's a very good system.

Where the system falls down is where people ONLY vote for the major party.  That absolutely defeats the purpose of MMP.  The idea of MMP is to give the major party a coalition partner - in National's case Act or New Zealand First and in the case of Labour, the Greens or Mana etc.  The idea is that you vote strategically.   Depending on your electorate you would give your electorate vote to a minor party and your party vote to the major party.  MMP was not introduced so that National or Labour can govern alone.  It was introduced to prevent that because when you have only Labour and National you only have one or two views being represented.

The other area where it falls down was seen in the 2011 Election where in an electorate like Mount Albert the party vote was split 50/50 (approximately) between National and Labour but the Labour candidate (David Shearer) won by the landslide.  That absolutely defeats the purpose of MMP and negates your vote because you're voting for two opposing sides.  It would be like playing a game of rugby and scoring points for both teams, that's just plain stupid.

It's amazing to think that after 20 years people still do not understand MMP.  The idea of MMP, and I cannot stress this enough to ensure that the major party has a coalition partner because if they don't they can do whatever they want and that is not the purpose of democracy.

Australia has FPP and they can't handle parties like the Greens and the Palmer United Party having some say over Government policy.  PUP is closely aligned with the Liberal Party and has the power to veto or support a particular policy.  The Australian public do not comprehend the concept of having coalitions and can't understand that minority interests actually do need to be represented to be truly democratic.

Once again, to reiterate, and I cannot stress this enough as I've said, the idea of MMP is to give the major party you support a coalition partner so that parties are forced to compromise on democracy, NOT to split your vote by going Labour and National or National and National or Labour and Labour.  Without minor parties there wouldn't be true democracy in New Zealand.

It is only two weeks until the General Election, please, please, please use your votes wisely and vote for a minor party and a major party, because that is actually the purpose of MMP - MIXED. MEMBER. PROPORTION.  Which means that a range of views and ideologies have their say in parliament, not just one or two which is what the OLD system NZ voted against (FPP) was about.