Opinion: MMP's not perfect, but it works

Winston Peters, the "Queenmaker". Photo/file

The Labour/New Zealand First/Greens coalition has caused a stir among voters.

There's a post that's been doing the rounds of social media: "MMP, bringing you the Government you didn't vote for. 63.1 per cent didn't vote Labour, 92.8 per cent didn't vote New Zealand First, 93.7 per cent didn't vote Greens. And it took all these losers to join together to unseat the party with the most votes, all decided by one man who didn't win his seat . . . No matter which side of the fence you are on, surely this isn't right!"

Winston Peters' choice of coalition partners was always going to irk a large portion of the country.

That's what happens when no party has a majority. There's always going to be more people who didn't vote for the "winner" than people who did.

Case in point, Election 2014. National got 47.04 per cent of the vote and formed a minority government with Act (0.69 per cent of votes), United Future (0.22 per cent) and Maori Party (1.32 per cent), the four parties in total winning 49.27 per cent of the country's votes.

So, 50.73 per cent of the country didn't vote for any of these four parties. It's not quite the amalgamation of our 2017 election, but it's still a result in which more people against National and its partners than for.

This is how MMP works. Like it or hate it, it's an electoral system which means voting for a minor party isn't a wasted vote.

It's not perfect. But I'd rather stick with MMP than have a system like the United States, which saw a candidate with 65,853,516 votes lose to someone with 62,984,825 votes.

Each and every one of our votes counts. To me, that's right. No matter who's in power.