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 was registered later in the day. The New York Times reported on 13 March that the National Party intended to "merge into whatever party has the best bid", however party leader TheSensibleCentre tweeted the following day that "[National] will be contesting this election". The Globe Party was registered on 14 March, and was described by party leader zhuk236 as aspiring to "deepen our relationship with the rest of the liberal world and provide better relationships between liberal democracies".

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.

Candidates
A provisional list of candidates was released on 20 March 2023.

Campaigning
The campaign period for the March 2023 general election began on 18 March, and will conclude on 24 March, making it one of the longer campaign periods in recent New Zealand history.

ACT
ACT New Zealand released their manifesto on 18 March. Titled Investing in our Future, it contained pledges to reduce GST to 10%, implement a Climate Change Act, and increase the police budget.

Globe
The Globe Party manifesto was published on 20 March. It included a strong focus on trade, promising to create stronger trade partnerships with Asian and African democracies, negotiate a "comprehensive free trade deal" with Malaysia, and renegotiate a US trade deal. As well as that, Globe also promised to increase student visa numbers, increase financial and military support to Ukraine, and cut GST to 10% or lower.

SIPP
The South Island People's Party campaign was opened outside party leader purplewave_'s Blenheim home on 18 March. purplewave_ called for the South Island to "govern ourselves", advocating for the establishment of a devolved parliament for the South Island.

Together
Together for All party leader alisonhearts launched the party's campaign at the Manukau Institute of Technology on 18 March, focusing on Together's pledge to introduce a basic income of $500 a week for those over the age of 16. Together for All's party manifesto was released on the same day, including policies of bank nationalisation, a 30% capital gains tax, universal public healthcare, defunding non-government schools, and humanitarian and medical support to Ukraine.

Party manifestos

 * ACT New Zealand: Investing in our Future (archive link)
 * Globe Party: manifesto (archive link)
 * Together for All: March 2023 election manifesto (archive link)