Ethnic Minority Party of New Zealand
The Ethnic Minority Party was a New Zealand political party which focused on Asian voters, particularly Chinese and Indians.
The party was formed on 2 April 1996, and hoped to take advantage of the benefits given to smaller parties by the new MMP electoral system. It was organised by Robert Hum, an immigrant to New Zealand from Malaysia. The party's foundation came as the anti-immigration New Zealand First party made significant gains in the polls. In the 1996 elections, it stood a list of eleven candidates, and received 0.12% of the vote.[1]
In 1997, the Ethnic Minority Party merged into the United New Zealand party, and in the 1999 elections, many Ethnic Minority Party candidates were in high positions on United's list. However, United won only a single seat, leaving the Ethnic Minority candidates outside Parliament. Later, United merged with Future New Zealand to create the modern United Future, and the Ethnic Minority influence has been considerably diluted.
References
- ↑ "Part III - Party Lists of unsuccessful Registered Parties" (PDF). Electoral Commission. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
