Country quota

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The country quota was a part of the New Zealand electoral system from 1881 until 1945. Its effect was to make urban constituencies larger than those in rural areas, thus making rural votes worth more in general elections.^[1]

The quota was established to prevent or at least slow the marginalisation of rural interests as the New Zealand population became increasingly urbanised. It was also a way to counteract the influence of recently enfranchised working men; until the 1970s only (male) property owners could vote, which meant that a disproportionate number of electors lived in the countryside. The quota was originally 33%, meaning that urban electorates were 33% larger than rural electorates and, essentially, rural votes were worth 33% more. In 1887 the quota was reduced to 18%, but then increaed two years later to 28%.

The country quota was always unpopular with the Labour Party, which took most of its support from the cities, and generally felt the system to be an undemocratic violation of the 'one man one vote' principle. Its policy of abolishing the seats was abandoned in the 1930s in order to win rural support, and the seats remained for the first three terms of the first Labour government. By the 1940s Labour had lost most of its rural support and felt that the quota could cost it the 1946 election. Consequently, the quota was abolished in 1945 and Labour won the election by four seats.

[edit] Footnotes

^ Urban electorate were those which contained cities or boroughs of over 2000 people or were within five miles of the chief post offices in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, or Dunedin.