Election of The Speaker
The Speaker is always a Member of Parliament, and is elected by the House at the beginning of a parliamentary term. By convention, the Speaker is elected unopposed—any party able to form a government is presumably able to have its candidate installed as Speaker whether there is opposition or not. Recently this has not been the case. In March 2005, several MPs challenged for the Speakership following the resignation of Rt. Hon. Jonathan Hunt.
Read more about this topic: Speaker Of The New Zealand House Of Representatives
Famous quotes containing the words election and/or speaker:
“Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“English audiences of working people are like an instrument that responds to the player. Thought ripples up and down them, and if in some heart the speaker strikes a dissonance there is a swift answer. Always the voice speaks from gallery or pit, the terrible voice which detaches itself in every English crowd, full of caustic wit, full of irony or, maybe, approval.”
—Mary Heaton Vorse (1874–1966)