The 1993 Electoral Law established the procedure, being applied by the Electoral Management Body in charge of setting the boundaries of the constituencies in New Zealand. It is an interesting case because of the way in which they are dealing with the specific ethnical and cultural nature of one part of the population (the Maoris), whilst at the same time making an effort to guarantee a balanced, fair distribution of the constituencies, applying numerical, cultural, geographic and historic criteria.
The essential regulations of this process can be found in articles 35, 38, 45, 46 and 269 of the Electoral Law. As general criteria, a set number of common or 'non-Maori' districts are allocated to the Southern Island. Then they calculate the number of common districts of the Northern Island and the Maoris in such a way that they end up with a similar number of voters as the Southern Island. The approximate relation in a distribution of 67 seats, is 16 common districts for the Southern Island and 45 for the Northern Island. The number of Maori districts may vary, taking into account the evolution of the population and the Maori voters register. The present number is six, based on the 1996 register.
The law sets some very strict limits to the possible variations in population between districts: the difference may not exceed ±5%. In the first proposal of the Electoral Management Body, the average population of the districts was as follows:
- Common districts of the Northern Island: 53.690 (±2.684)
- Common districts of the Southern Island: 54.105 (±2.705)
- Maori Districts: 56.166 (±2.808)
Within the population limits pointed out, the Electoral Management Body must take several criteria into account in a balanced manner when it comes to setting boundaries for the districts: the existing constituencies, the communities of interest, means of transportation, geographic elements and the demographic provisions that may help foresee variations in the populations during the time that these new constituencies will be in effect.
For the Maori districts, the previous Maori constituencies, the existence of communities of interest between the Maori population and the Maori tribe members, communications facilities, geographic traits and the demographic projections of the Maori electoral population of the said district during the time that they are in effect, have to be taken into account. These are more extensive districts than the average common districts, due to the lower population density in these territories.
The Electoral Management Body may apply the limit of 5% so that initially, districts will be constituted of a bigger or a smaller population, should the demographic forecasts show tendencies of growth or sharp drops in some of them. Thus it will be able to anticipate the demographic forecasts and at the same time, ensure the fairness and stability of the constituencies. The demographic forecasts used refer to the years 1999, in which general elections are likely to take place and 2002, which is the theoretic time limit of the boundaries presently in force.
SOURCE: INFORMATION FROM THE NEW ZEALAND ELECTORAL AUTHORITY (ELECTIONS NZ WEB PAGE)-
