Mixed Member Proportional Representation: A very brief history and news

The basic concept of levelling seats that underpins Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) representation, that is seats added to a parliament to make it representative of the party votes received in elections, was introduced in Denmark in 1915 and is still used throughout Scandinavia.

Germany introduced MMP in particular after WWII when they were clearly desperately in need of a new, more democratic electoral system, and they have retained MMP since then and their system is generally considered among the most democratic, stable and effective in the world.

New Zealand voted to introduce MMP in a referendum in 1993, and first used it in 1996, and of course they now have the government led by Labour’s Jacinda Ardern in coalition with the NZ Greens and NZ First.

In the United Kingdom MMP is known as Alternative Vote Plus. It is already used for the Scottish parliament and Welsh and London assemblies, and there is a strong campaign to introduce it at the national level gaining ground in the context of the Brexit chaos.

Thailand introduced MMP for the 2019 elections.

South Korea is moving towards introducing MMP with support from governing party and minor parties, though opposition from the main conservative party.

Canada has had a number of referendums in provinces on introducing MMP narrowly defeated, sometimes due to high thresholds. There will be a referendum in Quebec in 2022. It is one of the more popular alternatives being explored at the national level though reform was undermined by Justin Trudeau after the last election but the campaign is still active as they head into their current election. Recently the NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said that he would introduce MMP “without a referendum” if elected prime minister.

In Queensland MMP could be introduced without constitutional change as it reforms the existing house of parliament, in contrast to its main competition in terms of electoral reform, reintroducing an upper house. MMP is part of the Queensland Greens Democracy Policy.

MMP would bring us much closer to the democratic ideal that underlies the principle of one vote, one value, as almost every vote would actually count towards determining the composition of parliament. At present while electorates might be roughly the same in size votes in marginal electorates are worth much more, as are the votes of swinging voters.