This week there will be a by-election in the North Island city of Tauranga. It will give the people who live in Tauranga a chance to vote for a new representative in parliament. They need to choose a new representative because the incumbent, Simon Bridges, has retired from politics.

Simon Bridges belongs to the National Party. We expect that the people of Tauranga will choose a new National Party representative, but if they change to a representative from a different party, this could affect the balance of power in the New Zealand government. For example, if Tauranga were to suddenly change to a Labour Party representative, this would make the Labour Party stronger in the New Zealand government.

However, this is very unlikely to happen as Tauranga is considered to be a safe seat for the National Party, because people have consistently voted for the National Party for over 70 years.

Vocabulary:

by-election: a special local election to replace a representative

representative: someone who speaks for a group of people, an advocate

seat: a region or location that votes for a single representative in the government

a safe seat: a seat that always chooses the same political party to represent it

balance of power: the ratio of representatives that belong to particular political parties; the ratio of power

incumbent: the person who is working in a position right now

parliament: the place where the government meets; the government

retire: stop working