新西兰英语 185 Referendum on MMP
New Zealand has had MMP voting for our Members of Parliament 1 for the last 16 years. MMP means 2 Mixed Member Proportional 3. The system we had before MMP was called First Past the Post, like horse racing 4, where the winner was the one with the most votes. If one party got 51% of the vote, that party became the government. Now under MMP, small parties have a chance to be in Parliament. If a small party gets 5% of the vote or wins one seat, that party can have 5% of MPs. We have 120 MPs in Parliament so 5% is 6MPs. In the last 16 years, we have had small parties in Parliament like the Maori Party, ACT and the Greens. Some of these small parties agree to support a bigger party to give them more than 50% of MPs in Parliament.
During the last election 5, National promised there would be a referendum on MMP. Yesterday John Key said that in the next election, in 2011, we will have a chance to vote about this. Do we want to continue with MMP? Is there a better way to choose MPs? One possibility is to give 1 to your first choice, 2 to your second choice, 3 to your third choice and so on. Or we could go back to First Past the Post.
- She won a seat in Parliament at the election.她在选举中赢得了议会中的席位。
- The drug was banned by an act of parliament.议会的法案明令禁止该药品。
- That man used artful means to find out secrets.那人使用狡猾的手段获取机密。
- We must get it done by some means or other.我们总得想办法把它干完。
- The increase of wages is proportional to the rise in prices.工资的增长与物价的上涨是成比例的。
- The output should be proportional to the input.输出应当与输入成比例。
- I was watching the racing on television last night.昨晚我在电视上看赛马。
- The two racing drivers fenced for a chance to gain the lead.两个赛车手伺机竞相领先。