New Zealand PM Leads Mixed Member Proportional Coalition
Under the Mixed Member Proportional electoral system New Zealand elects its third woman Prime Minister
New Zealand is an island nation that shares much in common with Prince Edward Island in its sociopolitical history. We still hope that PEI will share another trait with New Zealand in the future: a Mixed-Member Proportional electoral system.
Today, Jacinda Ardern, a 37-year-old woman from Hamilton, New Zealand, will be sworn in as the Prime Minister of New Zealand. She leads a coalition elected under the Mixed Member Proportional electoral system (MMP). MMP is the same electoral system that was selected last year as the preference of Prince Edward Islanders for a change to the way we vote and elect our MLAs.
The PEI Coalition for Women in Government continues to support MMP as an electoral model that boosts opportunities for women, diverse and under-represented groups, and women of diverse backgrounds to be elected.
Since New Zealand implemented Mixed-Member Proportional Representation in 1996, three women and three men have served as Prime Minister of New Zealand, leading government coalitions that have provided stable oversight of that nation. Before 1996, even though New Zealand was the first country in the world where women got the vote, there were 35 men and zero women who rose to the role of Prime Minister.
New Zealand is an island nation that shares much in common with Prince Edward Island in its sociopolitical history. We still hope that PEI will share another trait with New Zealand in the future: a Mixed-Member Proportional electoral system.
Leah-Jane Hayward
Chair
PEI Coalition for Women in Government