Project discussion: Fixed Election Dates
Electoral (Establishment of Fixed Election Dates) Amendment Bill
Member's Bill
Explanatory Note
An Act to establish a fixed date for the dissolution of Parliament, and to establish a fixed polling day for the general election, provided an early election is not called.
Electoral (Establishment of Fixed Election Dates) Amendment Bill
The Parliament of New Zealand enacts as follows:
1. Title
This Act is the Electoral (Establishment of Fixed Election Dates) Amendment Act 2009.
2. Commencement
This Act comes into force on the day after the date on which it receives the Royal assent.
3. Purpose
The purpose of this Act is to establish fixed dates for the dissolution of parliament and the polling day for general elections.
4. Principal Act Amended
This Act amends the Electoral Act 1993.
5. Sections Amended
Section 125 of the principle Act is hereby amended to state:
- Whenever Parliament is dissolved or expires, the Governor-General must, not later than 7 days after the dissolution or expiration, issue a writ in form 3 to the Chief Electoral Officer requiring the Chief Electoral Officer to make all necessary arrangements for the conduct of a general election.
- For the purpose of clarity, such an election shall be referred to as a mid-term election.
- If parliament dissolves as in section 1 of this clause, the writ for the general election must set polling day no earlier than the fifth Saturday and no later than the ninth Saturday after the day Parliament dissolves.
- Starting September 1st 2011, the Governor General must dissolve Parliament on September 1st every third year, even if the governor general is instructed to the contrary, and even if there has been a mid-term election.
- When Parliament is dissolved as in section 3 of this clause, the writ for the general election must set polling day as the first Saturday of November.
Two things to note:
I don't see how this differs majorly from current arrangements. It would simply stop the election date from precessing (as it does now because the effective maximum term is 3 years + a few weeks). It wouldn't stop the PM dissolving Parliament in July - do you assume this would happen by convention and governments would always wait for the expiry of the full term?
To introduce true fixed terms would require various changes, possibly:
- the power of the PM to dissolve parliament (via the G-G) would be removed
- in the event of a loss of confidence in the government, parliament would be limited to passing a "constructive motion of no confidence" which would nominate an alternative PM
- there would need to be a provision for when a government was unable to pass supply, this could be:
— pass Appropriation Bills in the first year of a government that provide for three years supply rather than one.
— enable the government to make the Appropriation Bill a matter of confidence, so that a vote against it would also need to nominate an alternate government.
I drafted this more thinking of trying to default to a fixed date than to absolutely ensure one. I think this would work okay if outgoing PMs were adequately criticised for calling early elections for no reason. I'm reluctant to suggest legislating away the PM's power to instruct the GG to dissolve parliament because under MMP this could be very useful if coalition parties break down.
I also think that calling an early election is often necessary in cases of no confidence where there exists no alternative viable government- although perhaps requiring the other parties to all submit they have no intention of forming a new government before parliament is dissolved onder usual circumstances might be a good idea. I'll have a look later to see if the relevant legislation is entrenched.
Basically, this is the "flexible version". There could also be a version between the one you're suggesting and the one I am that allows early elections to be called mid-term, but returns back to schedule when the first of september comes around- this would discourage mid-term elections rather nicely I think, while still allowing a "no government" parliament to conduct business.
Yeah, that probably needs cleaning up. Right now I'm thinking two options:
1) Switch "third whole year" to "third year since the last general election", given that the constitution act will kick in once they reach 1095 days from the return of last election's writs.
2) Change the legislation to dissolve parliament every third September 1st from 2011 onwards, meaning that calling an early election results in "mid-term elections".
Okay, I've re-written this to follow option 2. It ought not to need section 17 of the Constitution Act to kick in anymore, but technically speaking if the Governor General breaks this law, it's still there.
I've also pushed back polling day to roughly two months after Parliament dissolves.