In a newsletter to voters, Nelson MP Nick Smith claims National effectively won the 2017 election.
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A photo of the National Party newsletter written by Dr Smith was posted to Reddit on Saturday. The newsletter was sent to households in the Nelson and Tasman areas.
"Election 2017 has resulted in an unusual outcome where National won the election but lost the MMP negotiations," the newsletter reads.
Dr Smith goes on to cite that National received 1,152,075 votes, more than in any of the three previous elections. He also says National's party vote of 44.4 percent was "significantly" higher than Labour's party vote under Helen Clark's three Governments.
"This odd outcome came about because NZ First has ignored the convention both in New Zealand and overseas that the party with the most votes gets to form the Government.
"It is Winston Peters saying he knows better than the voters."
Commenters were quick to point out other countries with coalition governments where, like under MMP, the party that received the most votes did not necessarily form the government. That list includes Denmark, Macedonia and Australia.
Another commenter felt Dr Smith's claim that National received more votes in 2017 than in previous elections was disingenuous.
"Yes they got more votes than previous years, but only thanks to population increase - 44.4 percent is less than they got in 2008, 2011 and 2014."
Newshub has asked Dr Smith for comment.
Newshub.
