新西兰英语 526 Referendum

 　　A referendum is a vote for a policy or idea, not a vote for a person. When we vote for an MP on 26th November, we will also vote in a referendum about the voting system. Part A asks you to vote for one of these:

　　Do you want to keep MMP?

　　Do you want to change to another voting system?

　　You put a tick beside the one you choose.

　　Part B is the type of voting system that you want if most people vote to change. The four choices are: First Past the Post (FFP), Preferential Voting (PV), Single Transferable Vote (STV), Supplementary¹ Member (SM).

　　If most people choose to keep MMP, Part B does not matter. However, there will probably be some changes to MMP. Some things are not very fair at the moment. For example if a small party gets one MP elected, the party is allowed four other MPs from their list. This is how ACT got 5 MPs in Parliament in 2008. The ACT Party had only 3.65% of the vote. There are 120 MPs in Parliament.

　　Listen to Referendum on MMP to hear more about this.

　　The Elections NZ website has more about the referendum.

　　Vocabulary

　　Preferential – Who do you prefer? Put 1 beside your first preference, 2 beside your second preference etc.

　　Supplementary – extra

1 supplementary   

adj.补充的，附加的

参考例句：

• There is a supplementary water supply in case the rain supply fails.万一主水源断了，我们另外有供水的地方。
• A supplementary volume has been published containing the index.附有索引的增补卷已经出版。