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Elections in New Zealand: Milestones in Jacinda Ardern’s “Wildly Popular” Political Career
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardrain won the country’s general election, with an overwhelming majority unprecedented in New Zealand history, after counting the majority of the votes.
And harvested Ardrin, head of the Labor Party, 49 percent of the electorate, thus obtaining a parliamentary majority that guarantees him the presidency of the government.
While the opposition National Party voted for 27 percent of the electorate, the party conceded the defeat of the Labor Party.
These elections were scheduled for last September, but were postponed for a month due to the outbreak of the Corona virus.
Polling stations opened their doors to voters at 8:00 pm GMT Friday.
More than a million people voted in an early ballot that took place on October 3, when voters voted to pass two laws, one on “euthanasia” and the other on the legalization of cannabis use, in addition to elections. generals that determine the next prime minister.
She won aReddern overwhelmingly?
According to the Election Commission, the Labor Party won about 49 percent of the vote, followed by the National Party with 27 percent of the vote, and the “Act New Zealand” party and the Green Party won with 8 percent. of the votes.
“New Zealand has always been very supportive of the Labor Party for 50 years, and I promise to you that the party will work for all New Zealanders,” Ardern told his supporters after the victory was announced.
Judith Collins, chair of the opposition National Party, congratulated Ardern on the victory and promised that her party would be “a strong opponent.”
He pledged to run for the next general election, scheduled for 3 years, and said, “3 years will pass in a flash and we will go back to being what we were in the past.”
With these preliminary results, the Ardern Labor Party won 64 seats, an overwhelming majority.
No party has been able to achieve these results in New Zealand since the introduction of the current voting system, the “mixed proportional representation” system, which has been used in New Zealand since 1996.
Before the vote, observers questioned the ability of the Labor Party to achieve a parliamentary majority.
Ardern has made a commitment to voters to pass laws that support efforts to preserve the environment, as well as increasing funds allocated to the neediest schools and raising taxes on business leaders.
His rival, Cobbins, has pledged to increase investment in infrastructure in the country and cut taxes temporarily.
Why did the voters vote?
In addition to the general elections, the electorate voted in two referendums on two laws. The first refers to the right to choose the end of life or what is known as “euthanasia”, allowing patients who suffer from chronic and incurable situations to demand the end of their lives.
The other law relates to the legalization of the cannabis trade as a “narcotic”.
The first law needs the approval of more than 50 percent of the electorate to pass, while the second law, if passed by a majority of voters, will pass immediately.
The Electoral Commission will release the preliminary results related to these referendums on October 30.
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General elections are held every 3 years in New Zealand to elect Parliament, which forms the government.
How does the electoral system work in New Zealand?
General elections are held in the country every 3 years with a mixed proportional representation system, in which voters must vote twice, once for a party and once for a member of parliament.
Each party must get more than 5 percent of the vote to win a seat in Parliament.
New Zealand Parliament seats are allocated to indigenous (Maori) candidates.
To form a government, the party needs to win 61 of the 120 seats in Parliament.
Since the implementation of this electoral system, no party has been able to secure this number of seats to form the government on its own.
This forces the parties to form a coalition to form the government, which means that politicians from the smaller parties can determine the results of the elections, although the larger parties get the most votes.
This happened in 2017 when the National Party won the majority of seats in Parliament but was unable to form the government, and the Labor Party entered a coalition with the Green Party and New Zealand first, to form the government led by Ardern.
Ardern had gained massive popularity as a result of his decisive response to two major crises: the first was the attack that targeted two mosques in Christchurch in March 2019, and the second was the Corona epidemic crisis this year.
The Prime Minister had shown great sympathy for the families of the victims of the attack and attached this humanitarian situation to a “historic” declaration of new laws prohibiting the sale of types of weapons in the country.
Her followers and fans also see her as “the nation’s savior” from the Corona epidemic, after she took very strict measures to shut down the country. There is even talk of the phenomenon of “Jacindamania”, that is, the obsession with Jacinda.
In June, New Zealand was declared a clean country from the Corona virus, and although the virus returned soon and slightly to the country, the situation remained acceptable and controlled, as announced earlier this month.
