1996 New Zealand general election

1996 New Zealand general election

← 1993 12 October 1996 (1996-10-12) 1999 →
← outgoing members members →
All 120 seats in the House of Representatives 61 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout	2,135,175 (88.28%) 5.46%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Jim Bolger Helen Clark Winston Peters Party National Labour NZ First Leader since 26 March 1986 1 December 1993 18 July 1993 Leader's seat Taranaki-King Country Owairaka Tauranga Last election 50 seats, 35.05% 45 seats, 34.68% 2 seats, 8.40% Seats before 41 41 5 Seats won 44 37 17 Seat change 3‡ 4‡ 12‡ Electorate vote 699,073 33.91% 1.14 640,884 31.08% 3.60 278,103 13.49% 5.09 Party vote 701,315 33.87% 584,159 28.19% 276,603 13.35%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Jim Anderton Richard Prebble Clive Matthewson Party Alliance ACT United NZ Leader since 7 May 1995 24 March 1996 28 June 1995 Leader's seat Wigram Wellington Central Ran in Dunedin South (lost) Last election 2 seats, 18.21% Not yet founded Not yet founded Seats before 2 0 7 Seats won 13 8 1 Seat change 11‡ 8 6 Electorate vote 231,944 11.25% 6.96 77,319 3.75% new 42,666 2.07% new Party vote 209,347 10.10% 126,442 6.10% 18,245 0.88%
Results by electorate, shaded by winning margin
Prime Minister before election Jim Bolger National Subsequent Prime Minister Jim Bolger National

The 1996 New Zealand general election was held on 12 October 1996 to determine the composition of the 45th New Zealand Parliament. It was notable for being the first election to be held under the new mixed-member proportional (MMP) electoral system, and produced a parliament considerably more diverse than previous elections. Under the new MMP system, 65 members were elected in single-member districts by first-past-the-post voting, while a further 55 "top-up" members were allocated from closed lists to achieve a proportional distribution based on each party's share of the nationwide party vote.

1996 saw the National Party, led by Jim Bolger, retain its position in government, but only after protracted negotiations with the smaller New Zealand First party to form a coalition. New Zealand First won 17 seats—including sweeping every single Māori electorate, all of which had been dominated by the Labour Party since the Second World War. Particular emphasis was placed on New Zealand First's unprecedented success, particularly among Māori; their five Māori electorate winners became known as the "Tight Five". The party's position as "kingmaker" meant they were able to place either of the two major parties into government, a significant election outcome for such a new party.

Various other unusual results occurred under the new system. For one, the National Party sought to ensure the parliamentary representation of the ACT New Zealand, a newly-formed libertarian party which had largely split from the Labour Party after the end of Rogernomics. National endorsed ACT leader and former Labour minister Richard Prebble against their own for Wellington Central, a consistently safe Labour seat. Under New Zealand's MMP rules, a party qualified for list seats if it won at least one electorate seat, regardless of vote share. Bolger thus wanted to ensure ACT could potentially be part of a National-led coalition. Prebble unexpectedly won, though ACT's vote share would have qualified them for MMP in any event. Other unusual occurrences was the large amount of new Māori MPs – leading to the backronym "More Māori in Parliament" for MMP.^[1] With the introduction of MMP in 1996, the proportion of Māori in Parliament increased from 8% to 14%, to an all-time record of 17 MPs.^[2]