新西兰英语 185 Referendum on MMP

　　New Zealand has had MMP voting for our Members of Parliament¹ for the last 16 years. MMP means² Mixed Member Proportional³. The system we had before MMP was called First Past the Post, like horse racing⁴, where the winner was the one with the most votes. If one party got 51% of the vote, that party became the government. Now under MMP, small parties have a chance to be in Parliament. If a small party gets 5% of the vote or wins one seat, that party can have 5% of MPs. We have 120 MPs in Parliament so 5% is 6MPs. In the last 16 years, we have had small parties in Parliament like the Maori Party, ACT and the Greens. Some of these small parties agree to support a bigger party to give them more than 50% of MPs in Parliament.
During the last election⁵, National promised there would be a referendum on MMP. Yesterday John Key said that in the next election, in 2011, we will have a chance to vote about this. Do we want to continue with MMP? Is there a better way to choose MPs? One possibility is to give 1 to your first choice, 2 to your second choice, 3 to your third choice and so on. Or we could go back to First Past the Post.

1 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。

2 means   

n.方法，手段，折中点，物质财富

参考例句：

• That man used artful means to find out secrets.那人使用狡猾的手段获取机密。
• We must get it done by some means or other.我们总得想办法把它干完。

3 proportional   

adj.成比例的，相称的；n.[数]比例项

参考例句：

• The increase of wages is proportional to the rise in prices.工资的增长与物价的上涨是成比例的。
• The output should be proportional to the input.输出应当与输入成比例。

4 racing   

n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的

参考例句：

• I was watching the racing on television last night.昨晚我在电视上看赛马。
• The two racing drivers fenced for a chance to gain the lead.两个赛车手伺机竞相领先。

5 election   

n.选举，选择权；当选

参考例句：

• There is no doubt but that he will win the election.毫无疑问，他将在竞选中获胜。
• The government will probably fall at the coming election.在即将到来的大选中，该政府很可能要垮台。