Law and New Zealand's 2014 Election Campaign

Abstract

New Zealand’s 2014 election “did its job”, in the sense that it permitted a government to form and function in a way that those who are governed by it broadly consider legitimate. This article considers why elections are given this function and discusses the resulting disputes over the rules that should apply to elections. The author concludes that while the purpose of an election is to decide who will govern the country, elections and the legal rules that govern the electoral process will always produce disagreement.