There is no doubt ''coat-tailing'' gives MMP a bad name.
It is unfair when an electorate seat win can be enough to bring further MPs from the same party into Parliament.
This anomaly has encouraged unedifying gaming of the system at just about every MMP election.
At the same time, parties can win widespread support across New Zealand and gain no representation.
The ideal chance to improve the system came during the term of the last Parliament. But self-interest stood in the way and the opportunity was lost.
The origins of MMP in New Zealand go back to the royal commission set up by the fourth Labour government in 1985.
Labour candidates under traditional first-past-the-post (FPP) actually secured more votes than National's in both the 1978 and 1981 elections but gained fewer seats and lost the elections.
The commission reported in 1986, and recommended MMP. There was then a referendum on change and a vigorously fought run-off against FPP.
The first MMP election, 1996, is now so long ago it is easily forgotten what the initials MMP stand for (mixed-member proportional).
It has taken many years for electors, and sometimes commentators and the parties themselves, to get their heads around the overwhelming importance of the party vote for deciding representation in Parliament.
Winning electorate seats is still deemed significant for the large parties when sometimes it is helpful for parties to lose, thereby elevating another member off their list.
The unseemly coat-tailing complications have also inhibited understanding of MMP.
Winning seats like Tauranga (New Zealand First, in 1999), Ohariu (United Future), Epsom (Act) and Te Tai Tokerau (Mana and, this year, Internet Mana) became crucial for the survival of parties in the House as well as, potentially, for the overall election winner.
The Greens also earnestly tried to win Coromandel in 1999, being relieved to do so while also squeaking above the 5% party vote threshold.
Coat-tailing leads to all sorts of anomalies. Winston Peters scraped through in Tauranga in 1999 and brought in four more MPs, even though his party recorded less than 5% of the party vote.
In 2008, Act's Rodney Hide won Epsom and also brought in four MPs, while New Zealand First, although polling higher, missed out.
Colin Craig's Conservatives managed nearly 87,000 party votes on the preliminary count this year but the 4.1% share was insufficient to win even a single seat.
At National's instigation, a referendum on the voting system was held in 2011, with a majority supporting MMP.
This triggered an independent review of the system by the Electoral Commission.
It heard more than 4600 submissions during the first consultation round and 1000 after the proposals stage.
It, sensibly, recommended the coat-tailing rule be discarded and the threshold lowered to 4%, still a significant and worthwhile hurdle.
Labour and the Greens agreed with the proposals - some might say in self-interest - but Justice Minister Judith Collins said a consensus was required for electoral reform.
And Prime Minister John Key said he did not believe there was a groundswell of support for changes.
While electoral system modifications require care and caution, and consensus would be ideal, National's position reeked of self-serving politics. It was only at the previous election that Mr Key and John Banks indulged in the circus-like ''cup of tea'' fiasco, and National might have hoped to benefit from coat-tailing again.
It would have been deeply ironic if the reluctance to accept the recommendations had cost National the election. At one stage that seemed possible.
Act failed to win enough party votes to even coat-tail a second MP and Peter Dunne's United Future won so few that Ohariu is an ''overhang'' seat.
For a while it looked as though Hone Harawira could win Te Tai Tokerau and bring several Internet Mana colleagues into Parliament with him, before his personal and party support crumbled.
At the same time, if Labour and the Greens had polled higher, National might have required seats from the Conservatives to lead a government.
Instead, the Conservatives' 4.1% was ''wasted''.
Opportunities to alter MMP will be limited. What a shame the chance to do away with the coat-tailing rorts was missed last year.
