新西兰英语 521 Minor Political Parties

 　　Don’t forget to vote next Saturday if you are eligible¹ to vote. Did you receive your voting package last week? The envelope contains a list of all parties and candidates as well as your voting card which you take to the polling booth.

　　Are the minor² political parties important? That depends on how many votes they get. In the last election, National won 45% of the vote and Labour won 34%. National was able to form a government because it had the support of two minor parties, the Maori Party and ACT.

　　In the same election, the Green Party won 7% of the party vote. This gave them 9 seats. This was enough for a coalition³ with National but the Greens do not usually agree with National Party policies. The Greens are closer to Labour but 34% and 7% is only 41% and this is not a majority.

　　Election Vocabulary

　　Minor parties are the smaller ones. They probably cannot win a majority of the votes.

　　A majority is more than half.

　　There is only one candidate from each party in an electorate⁴.

　　There are 63 general electorates⁵ and 7 Maori electorates. This is a total of 70 electorates.

　　A poll before elections is often a telephone vote

　　You go to a polling booth to vote

　　In a coalition government, a smaller party or parties supports the main party

　　You are eligible to vote when you are 18 years old, and are a Permanent Resident or a New Zealand citizen and have lived in NZ for 1 year or more

　　How do you know what party and candidate to vote for?

　　Nearly all political parties and candidates have a website.

1 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。

2 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

3 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

4 electorate   

n.全体选民；选区

参考例句：

• The government was responsible to the electorate.政府对全体选民负责。
• He has the backing of almost a quarter of the electorate.他得到了几乎1/4选民的支持。

5 electorates   

全体选民( electorate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The assembly's 15 seats have electorates as small as 190. 大会的15个议席只有很少的190选民参加。
• Restricting hedge funds is something they can sell to their electorates. 限制对冲基金是他们能够向选民兜售的东西。