2017 New Zealand general election facts for kids

The 2017 New Zealand general election happened on Saturday, 23 September 2017. People voted to choose who would be in the 52nd New Zealand Parliament and who would be the next Prime Minister of New Zealand. The previous Parliament finished its term on 22 August 2017.

Jacinda Ardern became New Zealand's third female Prime Minister. Winston Peters became Deputy Prime Minister again. He had held this job before, from 1996 to 1998. This election ended nine years of the National Party being in charge. Ardern became Prime Minister after her Labour Party teamed up with Peters's New Zealand First party. Together, their parties had more votes than the National Party, so they formed the new government.

What is an Election?

In this election, voters chose 120 people to be members of the House of Representatives. New Zealand uses a special voting system called Mixed-Member Proportional (MMP). This system means that 71 members are chosen from specific local areas called electorates. The other 49 members are chosen from party lists, which are lists of candidates from each political party.

About 3.57 million people were signed up to vote. A lot of people, about 2.63 million (79.8%), actually voted. Many people chose to vote early. About 1.24 million votes were cast before the actual election day. This was more than the early votes from the two elections before this one, combined!

Who Were the Main Candidates?

The National Party had been leading the government since 2008. Their leader was Prime Minister Bill English. This was the first election where English was the Prime Minister. He had taken over from John Key in December 2016.

The main parties trying to win against the National Party were the Labour Party, led by Jacinda Ardern, the Green Party, and New Zealand First.

• 

  Jacinda Ardern
  (Labour Party)
  from Mount Albert

• 

  Prime Minister
  Bill English
  (National Party)
  from Clutha-Southland

• 

  Winston Peters
  (NZ First)
  from Northland

• 

  James Shaw
  (Green Party)
  from Wellington Central

• 

  David Seymour
  (ACT)
  from Epsom

• 

  Marama Fox
  (Māori Party)
  from Waiariki

Election Results

The results from the election

Party affiliation of winning electorate candidates.

The results showed how many votes each party got and how many seats they won in Parliament.

Images for kids

• 

  Ardern campaigning at the University of Auckland, 1 September 2017

• 

  Opinion polls for major parties from 2014-2017

• 

  Opinion polls for minor parties from 2014-2017

See also

In Spanish: Elecciones generales de Nueva Zelanda de 2017 para niños