candidate they dislike or vote for a party they dislike. Under a party list system, voters can support their preferred party even if they are unwilling to vote for its local candidate. An open list system, however, may go some way to addressing the concern that voters can only support all the candidates that were proposed by the party. A notable example of this was in the 2006 Dutch general election. The VVD had chosen Mark Rutte as their list puller (lijsttrekker). In the Netherlands, the party leader usually gets a large majority of the votes for that party, but in 2006 the number 2 on the list, Rita Verdonk got over 10% more votes than Mark Rutte. This eventually led to Rita Verdonk leaving the VVD and starting her own party. There is also debate about the right of a list MP to switch parties. Because list MPs gain their positions by virtue of being on a party list, rather than by winning votes personally, some contend that the party, not the MP, is the rightful "owner" of the seat. In New Zealand, there have been several controversies regarding list MPs who left their parties — Alamein Kopu, elected from the Alliance list, controversially became an independent, and Donna Awatere Huata, elected from the ACT list, similarly became an independent. In the latter case, Awatere Huata's former party went to the Supreme Court to expel her from Parliament under so-called waka jumping or "party-hopping" legislation. ACT alleged that it was ACT, not Awatere Huata, who was awarded the seat in the last election, and that when Awatere Huata left ACT, she should not have been able to take the seat with her. ACT's view was accepted, and Awatere Huata was expelled from Parliament. References Legislators Proportional representation electoral systems