新西兰英语 64 Small Political Parties

　　It is not just the American Presidential elections¹ in early November. Four days after the Americans have chosen their new President, we will vote but we cannot choose our leader. We can only vote for one person in our local area, our electorate², and for one party. If that party wins the majority of votes, that party becomes the government and their leader becomes our Prime³ Minister. There are 120 seats in Parliament⁴, so one party needs 61 MPs to have a majority.
However, under MMP, usually no party gets 61 seats. Instead, the party with the most seats needs the support of a smaller party so that together they have a majority. This is called a coalition⁵ where both parties agree to work together. However, small parties have different policies and they may not be happy in a coalition with National or Labour. This weekend, the Maori Party talked about the problems of a coalition with National. One problem is that National wants to get rid of the seven Maori seats in Parliament. Only Maori can vote in the Maori electorates⁶. Maori seats were first established in 1868 to make sure that Maori people were represented in Parliament but today there are 15 other Maori MPs who are not from Maori electorates. National says this means that Maori seats are not necessary any more. The Maori party disagrees.
National will not work with the New Zealand First leader, Winston Peters. The Greens have not yet said whether they will support Labour or National. Up till now, they have supported Labour. The Green Party is the only small party which is likely to get more than 5% of the vote. This would give them more MPs from their Party list. ACT will join a National coalition but if ACT only wins one seat, that will not help National much. The other small parties will probably not have enough MPs either.
Every vote is important. Your vote could make a difference.

1 elections   

n.选举，当选，推举( election的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Republicans got shellacked in the elections. 共和党在选举中一败涂地。
• He emerged victorious in the elections. 他在竞选中脱颖而出获得胜利。

2 electorate   

n.全体选民；选区

参考例句：

• The government was responsible to the electorate.政府对全体选民负责。
• He has the backing of almost a quarter of the electorate.他得到了几乎1/4选民的支持。

3 prime   

adj.首要的，主要的；最好的，第一流的

参考例句：

• The prime minister spoke of the general insecurity in the country.总理谈到了全国普遍存在的不安全。
• He met with the Prime Minister of Japan for an hour.他和日本首相会见了一个小时。

4 Parliament   

n.议会，国会

参考例句：

• She won a seat in Parliament at the election.她在选举中赢得了议会中的席位。
• The drug was banned by an act of parliament.议会的法案明令禁止该药品。

5 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

6 electorates   

全体选民( electorate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The assembly's 15 seats have electorates as small as 190. 大会的15个议席只有很少的190选民参加。
• Restricting hedge funds is something they can sell to their electorates. 限制对冲基金是他们能够向选民兜售的东西。