March 2023 New Zealand general election

The March 2023 New Zealand general election will be held on 25 March 2023. The incumbent ACT-Māori government, led by Prime Minister Lady_Aya, will be seeking re-election, with the opposition National Party led by TheSensibleCentre. The far-left Socialist Aotearoa party, led by Maaaaaaaadison, is also likely to contest. Outside parliament, the Labour Party, Change NZ, and Together for All are also registered to contest elections.

Background
A debate on the dissolution of the Model New Zealand Parliament sim began on 27 January 2023. A lot could be written about the state of MNZP prior to this, but it can perhaps best be summed up by Governor-General BestinBounds, who said "its no secret the sim is not in a great place" in the post on the debate. Ultimately, the sim voted quite overwhelmingly not to dissolve, with the results on 14 February being 13-4 against dissolution. MNZP remained (and probably remains) in quite a precarious position, however, with activity being extremely low and almost singlehandedly driven by a few people.

On 28 February, fourtipsymetalpukeko was elected as the new Chief Electoral Officer, and thus tasked with running the upcoming election. The election was called by the new CEO on 2 March, who set the date for Saturday 25 March. On 12 March, two new parties were registered -- Change NZ and Together for All. Change NZ described itself as a "centrist party" focused on "compromise rather than party politics", while Together described itself as "a party of the progressive-left", similar to European parties such as Podemos and DiEM25.

On 13 March, former Country Party MP purplewave_ announced the formation of the South Island People's Party, advocating for the independence of the South Island. It, as well as New Zealand First, led by list MP and former Te Pāti Māori co-leader TheTrashMan_10, were registered later in the day.

Electoral system
While it had been debated and discussed for a while previously, the new electoral system for the election was formally announced on 12 March 2023. For the first time in the history of MNZP, the parliament would be expanded to 120 seats, with all of New Zealand's real-life electorates being contestable by players. Each party (excluding those only contesting a certain region) would be able to have a "faceless nameless candidate" in each electorate not contested by a player.

Seats in the parliament would be determined by the party vote, with each party that either wins more than 5% of the party vote or wins one of 72 electorates eligible for seats in parliament. The electoral system is identical to that used in the real-life New Zealand Parliament.

Registered parties
Political parties registered with the Electoral Commission can contest the general election as a party. A registered party may submit a party list to contest the party vote. Unregistered parties and independents can contest the electorate vote only.

Opinion polling
The table below lists party vote intentions. Seat projections are displayed below the percentages in a smaller font.