I hadn’t realised that National effectively gets an additional MP as a result of this (although the additional list seat could get allocated to another party on election night).
I hadn’t either! This could reshape the outcome of the election! It also seems like an odd setup, but what’s an alternate way of doing it? Reallocate list MPs after a change in electorate MPs?
Yeah, it’s not actually that simple to solve without creating other problems.
The “obvious” solution would be to keep that seat open until a by-election, so only 119 seats are allocated on election night. That could potentially make government formation more complex because of uncertainty over who has the numbers. But that’s already the case when special votes are counted. It could push the time frame out longer, since a by-election takes longer to organise. And as you say, it could result in someone getting in on the list but having to be kicked out later (again something that could happen with special votes, although MPs aren’t usually sworn in by that stage).
In the article, Geddis suggests taking the result of the election as it stands, potentially awarding it to the second highest candidate. But (unless I misunderstand) that seems worse since it could affect thresholds, etc.
Ah, I didn’t really follow what the article was suggesting for some reason.
If they aren’t independant, perhaps the party could have a stand-in MP that takes the place on the poll as if they were the original, and they stay until a by-election can be had.
Yeah, that would make sense too. Most people probably cast their electorate vote on party more than the candidate anyway.
It would also solve the problem (like this case) where the candidate who died more than likely wasn’t going to win.
Yeah, doesn’t solve the problem of what to do when an independant dies though. Even if they were unlikely to win, how do you prove it? No one is doing wide scale polling of electorates.
True, although in that (pretty rare) case it makes sense to award it to the 2nd place winner and then hold a by election. It could affect government formation although it’s pretty unlikely to.
Would work even better if we moved to preferential voting
Right, we’ve solved the issue. Write up a bill and throw it in the biscuit tin!
