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Updated 1 hour ago
NEW ZEALAND Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is on track to achieve an unprecedented outright majority in New Zealand’s general election, building on the success in the battle against Covid-19 to gain a second term and the opportunity to implement her reform agenda. .
With a third percent of the votes counted, Ardern’s center-left Labor Party was at 50.6% and was forecast to take about 66 seats in the 120-member parliament.
No leader has achieved an absolute majority since New Zealand adopted a proportional voting system in 1996, leading to a succession of multi-party governments.
While the numbers are early, they beat pre-election opinion polls and would represent Labor’s strongest result since 1946 if held constant.
The opposition National Party was at 25.7%, or 33 seats, and appears to be heading for its worst result in nearly 20 years.
This morning, Ardern seemed relaxed and brought homemade cheese buns to the campaign volunteers in Auckland.
A record number of voters cast early votes in the two weeks leading up to the election, the results of which will be announced later today.
In the election campaign, Ardern has been greeted like a rock star by people who have crowded into shopping malls and spilled onto the streets to cheer her up and take selfies with her.
His popularity soared earlier this year after he led a successful effort to eradicate the coronavirus.
There is currently no community spread of the virus in the nation of five million and people are no longer required to wear masks or socially distance themselves.
Ardern is with his constituency workers at an event in Auckland.
One question will be whether Labor can win an absolute majority in parliament, something that has not happened since New Zealand implemented a proportional voting system 24 years ago.
Usually parties must form alliances to govern, but this time there is a chance that Ardern and Labor could do it alone.
Ardern’s rival Collins says he still believes he can win and that polls have been wrong before, particularly about Brexit and the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
The 40-year-old prime minister won the highest post after the 2017 elections, when the Labor Party formed an alliance with two other parties.
The following year, she became the second world leader to give birth while in office.
New Zealand National Party Leader Judith Collins on the election campaign.
She became a role model for working mothers around the world, many of whom saw her as a counterpoint to US President Donald Trump.
And she was praised for her handling of last year’s attack on two Christchurch mosques, when 51 Muslim worshipers were shot dead by a white supremacist.
He moved quickly to pass new laws outlawing the deadliest types of semi-automatic weapons.
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At the end of March this year, when only about 100 people had tested positive for Covid-19, Ardern and his health officials put New Zealand in a strict lockdown with the slogan of “try hard and start early.”
He closed the borders and outlined an ambitious goal of eliminating the virus entirely rather than simply trying to control its spread.
With New Zealand having the advantage of being an isolated island nation, the strategy worked.
New Zealand removed community broadcasting for 102 days before a new group was discovered in August in Auckland.
Ardern quickly imposed a second lockdown on Auckland and the new outbreak faded. The only new cases recently found have been among returning travelers, who are in quarantine.
The Auckland outbreak also led Ardern to postpone the elections for a month and helped increase early voter turnout.
Collins (61) is a former lawyer. She served as a minister when National was in power and prides herself on a direct and no-nonsense approach, in contrast to Ardern’s empathetic style.
The challenger promises sweeping tax cuts in response to the economic recession caused by the virus.
In elections, voters also have a voice on two contentious social issues: whether to legalize marijuana and euthanasia.
Polls indicate that the referendum on euthanasia is likely to pass, while the vote on marijuana remains closed.
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