It’s a comforting reassurance to me that our democracy works. Sure, it has flaws and can be frustrating, but we get there.
It shows a united purpose in my community. There is a sense of duty and, yes, almost privilege in the way people line up to have their say. It reminds me that we live in a very free country, a rarity in today’s world.
Just about every one of us has an opinion on our democracy. That’s good because it means we actually think about it, and we have ideas on how to make it better.
We all know change can take forever, even in our little democracy.
We have our moans and thoughts about our freedoms but at least we are free to express those moans and thoughts to anyone who will listen. Try doing that in some other countries we all know.
Voting is, in terms of history, a very recent phenomenon, even in New Zealand. Even though New Zealand women were the first women of any nation on earth to gain the right to vote in 1893, that’s not really all that long ago.
My grandparents were all born into a New Zealand where women were denied the vote. I knew all my grandparents; they formed a significant part of my young life. So it is not that long ago.
All voting-age males had the right to vote in New Zealand in 1879, only 14 years before their womenfolk, Māori men 12 years earlier in 1867 - but only in the then four Māori seats available in our Parliament.
Prior to all men getting the vote in New Zealand, voting was confined to those men of property or Māori men.
So, as a system, our voting rights are relatively recent. To be savoured and protected. Hard-fought for rights by our forebears.
Remember British women did not achieve the right to vote generally until 1928 when the Representation of the People Act 1928 finally opened the door for all British people over the age of 21 to vote. A mere 24 years before I was born.
New Zealand’s democracy was, therefore, the earliest in the then Empire to enjoy full enfranchisement of all people over the age of 21 years. Something we, as a country, should be very proud of.
As a regular watcher of Parliament and a sometimes commentator on our politics, I feel we have a very safe political system, probably better than ever before with more and wider representation of all New Zealanders in our Parliament.
Happily, we all have wider choice nowadays. In days past, certainly prior to First Past the Post being assigned to history in the mid-1990s, there were usually only two main choices.
There were other parties of course, Social Credit being for a short time a voice in Parliament with two members.
Of course we were all amused by the antics of the McGillicuddy Serious Party in the 1980s and 1990s, led by their erstwhile Laird Graeme Cairns.
A party founded in our universities that acted as a sideline to our Election Day decisions until 1999, when the party retired from politics after gaining 0.16 per cent of the votes, their best effort, in the 1993 election.
I heard scuttlebutt that they were worried that we were beginning to really take them seriously, and so they decided to pack their tents.
Some would say two main choices are more than enough. I disagree. I like the idea of small parties having their say and even influencing decisions, making the main parties consider another point of view.
All political parties rely on their bases and I believe it makes for a fairer system of government.
It plainly makes for a better representation of our voters; everyone gets their choice on the day, resulting in, at present, at least six possible parties who might be involved in our new Parliament in whatever combination.
I would like to offer my best wishes to all our local political candidates in the General seats and in our local Māori seat.
