Universal Suffrage
After a long history of agitation, women in New Zealand were granted the right to vote in 1893. Theoretically New Zealand now has universal suffrage - meaning everyone over the age of 18 has the right to vote- which is considered a basic element of democracy. However in 2010 the National government passed The Electoral (Disqualification of Convicted Prisoners) Amendment Bill which removed the right of sentenced prisoners to vote. The Attorney General says the new law is inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act. Section 12 of the Bill states that "every New Zealand citizen who is over the age of 18 years has the right to vote and stand in genuine periodic elections of members of the House of Representatives".
Read more about this topic: Electoral System Of New Zealand
Famous quotes containing the words universal and/or suffrage:
“The appetite for power, even for universal power, is only insane when there is no possibility of indulging it; a man who sees the possibility opening before him and does not try to grasp it, even at the risk of destroying himself and his country, is either a saint or a mediocrity.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)
“Having a thirteen-year-old in the family is like having a general-admission ticket to the movies, radio and TV. You get to understand that the glittering new arts of our civilization are directed to the teen-agers, and by their suffrage they stand or fall.”
—Max Lerner (b. 1902)