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IN THE GENERAL ELECTION HELD ON 27 OCTOBER 1990 FOURTH LABOR GOVERNMENT SUFFERED THE WORST DEFEAT INFLICTED ON AN INCUMBENT PARTY SINCE THE ADVENT OF TWO-PARTY POLITICS IN THE LATE 1930S. A NUMBER OF DISTINCTIVE FEATURES CHARACTERIZED THE ELECTION. FIRST, THE NUMBER OF CANDIDATES WAS 44 PER CETN HIGHER THAN THE PREVIOUS RECORD IN 1984. SECOND, THE NUMBER OF PARTIES CONTESTING MAJORITY OF SEATS JUMPED TO SEVEN ALTHOUGH THE TOTAL NUMBER OF "PARTIES" REPRESENTED WAS WELL BELOW THE NUMBER WHICH CONTESTED THE 1897 ELECTION. THIRD, THE 1990 ELECTION WAS NOTEWORTHY FOR THE LARGEST AGAINST AN INCUMBENT GOVERNMENT SINCE 1935. FINALLY, THE RATIO OF SEATS WON TO VOTES CAST FOR WINNING NATIONAL PARTY WAS MORE BADLY SKEWED THAN IN ANY PREVIOUS ELECTION; ALTHOUGH IT CAPTURED FEWER THAN HALF THE VALID VOTES CAST IT WON JUST UNDER 70 PER CENT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY SEATS. THE 1990 ELECTION HAS HIGHLIGHTED, YET AGAIN, THE DEFICIENCIES OF THE FIRST-PAST-THE-POST ELECTORAL SYSTEM.

First published in 1998, this volume is based upon the files of the Royal Commission on the Electoral System plus extensive interviews with the Commissioners, cabinet ministers, MPs and officials, as well as leaders of the principal pressure groups. It seeks to place this highly important change in context, reviewing both the long-term trends and shorter term considerations which led to the adoption of MMP, as well as the immediate consequences It is an axiom of political science that whatever promises political parties may make about electoral reform, as governments they do not kick away the ladder that brought them to power. This book seeks to discover how and why that axiom was disregarded in New Zealand, and, above all, how a reputedly conservative party was ultimately responsible for the change. It provides an object lesson in both how, and how not to change an electoral system and should be of particular interest in countries with simple plurality electoral systems.