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General Elections
General elections to the House of Assembly are held on the first Saturday in March every four years. The original Elections Act had elections held every three years, with candidates selected using the Instant Runoff Voting
system. In 2015 the Elections Act was amended to include fixed four year terms. The Act was changed again in 2020 to introduce the current system for electing candidates.
New England uses a unique electoral system known as Mixed Member Preferential Proportional Representation or MMPPR for the election of the parliament. Under MMPPR each person who is enrolled as an elector has two votes:
- The Party Vote is for the political party the elector most wants to be represented in Parliament. The Party Vote portion of the single-page ballot paper shows all the registered political parties that have nominated a party list for the general election. Every voter chooses among the same parties on the Party Vote regardless of where they live and are enrolled to vote.
- The Electorate Vote is for the candidate the elector wants to represent him or her as the electorate MP.
