just want people to feel that they all have opportunities for representation". In 2021, it was revealed that the National Party intended to run candidates in Māori electorates in the next general election. ACT Party The ACT Party opposes the Māori electorates. Its leader, David Seymour, has called for their abolishment as recently as 2019. Hobson's Pledge, a lobby group founded by former ACT Party leader Don Brash, advocates abolishing the allocated Māori electorates, seeing them as outdated. New Zealand First New Zealand First, who once held all Māori seats (see Tight Five), has advocated for abolition of the separate electorates but says that the Māori voters should make the decision. During the 2017 election campaign, the New Zealand First leader Winston Peters announced that if elected his party would hold a binding referendum on whether Maori electorates should be abolished. During post-election negotiations with the Labour Party, Peters indicated that he would consider dropping his call for a referendum on the Māori electorates due to the defeat of the Māori Party at the 2017 election. In return for forming a government with the Labour Party, New Zealand First agreed to drop its demand for the referendum. Number of electorates From 1868 to 1996, four Māori electorates existed (out of a total that slowly changed from 76 to 99). They comprised: Eastern Maori Northern Maori Southern Maori Western Maori With the introduction of the MMP electoral system after 1993, the rules regarding the Māori electorates changed. Today, the number of electorates floats, meaning that the electoral population of a Māori seat can remain roughly equivalent to that of a general seat. In the first MMP vote (the 1996 election), the Electoral Commission defined five Māori electorates: Te Puku O Te Whenua (The belly of the land) Te Tai Hauauru (The western district) Te Tai Rawhiti (The eastern district) Te Tai Tokerau (The northern district) Te Tai Tonga (The southern district) A sixth Māori electorate was added for the second MMP election in 1999: Hauraki Ikaroa-Rawhiti Te Tai Hauāuru Te Tai Tokerau Te Tai Tonga Waiariki Since 2002, there have been seven Māori electorates. For the 2002 and 2005 elections, these were: Ikaroa-Rāwhiti Tainui Tāmaki Makaurau (roughly equivalent to greater Auckland) Te Tai Hauāuru Te Tai Tokerau Te Tai Tonga Waiariki From 2008, Tainui was largely replaced by Hauraki-Waikato, giving the following seven Māori electorates: Hauraki-Waikato – North Western North Island,