The number of guaranteed seats for Māori representatives on New Zealand councils will be slashed by more than half, following a controversial law change that forced local governments to put the fate of hard-won Māori seats to a public vote.
Māori wards, which may have one or more councillors depending on local population numbers, were established in 2001 to give Indigenous voters the option to vote for a guaranteed Māori representative in local and regional authorities. Initially, councils could only establish a Māori ward by first putting it to a public vote in their area. Communities often spent years generating local support and pushing their councils to create Māori wards.
