By RNZ.co.nz. Republished with permission.
Over the weekend, the Labour Party is holding its first conference since its landslide win in the 2020 election.
The virtual event’s main focus is a vote on changing the way the party elects the leader who will replace Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
Labour’s governing body, the New Zealand Council, has proposed a new leader be elected by caucus, if more than two-thirds of MPs vote for that person within a week of the job coming up.
If voted in, the proposal would mean the next Labour leader could be elected by the party’s caucus alone, rather than a combination of the caucus, Labour members, and unions.
Under the current electoral college system, the party’s caucus and members each account for 40 percent of the total vote while affiliates, mainly unions, make up the remaining 20 percent.
It was voted into the party’s constitution in 2012 by Labour delegates, replacing a voting regime where Labour’s caucus alone elected its leader.
Ardern will make a speech in the afternoon before holding a media conference, where it is expected she will announce the voting results on the proposal.
