Mike, not that you may care about a tiny, distant land with only 4 million citizens ;-)

New Zealand holds elections every 3 years or so.

We get to vote twice: firstly for a Member of Parliament (MP) for our electorate or region. Secondly, because we have a MMP system, we vote again for the "Party" we would like to win. It is common to split votes to give a seat to a respected local representative while using the party vote to assist a smaller party that is not equipped to contest an electorate, but which has good policies.

At the end, the Party votes are counted and a number of "List Seats" is allocated to each Party, depending how many Party Votes they got. Each party publishes an ordered "list" of proposed MPs prior to the election; if a party is allocated "x" seats, the first "x" in their list become MPs. A cynic might suggest that this is to allow dreadful unelectable unrepresentative activists to get into parliament without having to face the public.

These appointed MPs plus the elected MPs form a Government. To be a government means you have enough MPs to pass laws and survive votes of no confidence- i.e. a simple majority.

We have 2 main parties, but under MMP it is common for no single party to hold an absolute majority, allowing minor parties to hold a balance of power and exert more control than the electorate intended.

The Prime Minister is selected by the Government. The Cabinet is selected by the Prime Minister. Other MPs are "back-benchers" with little formal authority unless/until they can wangle a Cabinet seat or a place in a Select committee.

Judges, Police Commissioners etc are political or administrative appointments- no voting. Some consider that there are both "old boy" and "old girl" networks to advantage the self-selected elite. Overall the system seems less corrupt and more transparent than many alternatives, so we are reasonably happy.

It is worth noting that New Zealand's top positions are currently all filled by women: Prime Minister, Chief Judge, Supreme Court head, Attorney General, Governor General are all women. Apparently that isn't very common on the world stage?

Regards

j.R