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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s Labor Party won the parliamentary elections in New Zealand: with 91 percent of the votes cast, it obtained 48.9 percent of the vote, a historic result also influenced by the handling of the epidemic of coronavirus. considered among the best in the world. The main opposition party, the Liberal-Conservative National Party, has stalled at 27 percent, and its leader Judith Collins has already admitted defeat. The two parties that are part of the ruling coalition along with Labor, New Zealand First and The Greens, got 8 and 7.5 percent of the vote respectively.
Therefore, he is already certain that Ardern will serve a second term as prime minister. What is not yet known is whether the Labor Party will be able to govern alone or will have to form a coalition with other parties. New Zealand’s parliament has a single House with 120 seats and for a party to rule it only needs to get at least 61: with current projections, the Labor Party has scored 64. If this result is confirmed, the new Ardern government could be the first to be made up of a single party since the current mixed proportional electoral system was introduced in 1996. If Labor ultimately do not reach 61 seats, they could form a new government even with only the Greens, with whom they have more political affinities .
In his victory speech, Ardern thanked New Zealanders, especially those who had not voted for Labor in the past, and pledging that he will try to represent all citizens, he said: “We live in a polarized world. I hope that with these elections New Zealand has shown that we are not like that. We are too young to lose sight of the perspective of others.
The New Zealand government’s reaction to the coronavirus pandemic is seen as the main reason for the Labor Party’s success in the elections. Fewer than two thousand people have been infected with the virus in New Zealand, which has 5 million inhabitants; only 25 have died from COVID-19. Before the spread of the coronavirus, Ardern’s popularity was declining because many believed that he had failed to deliver on his 2017 election promises. Ardern is 40 years old, has been a member of parliament since 2008, and is the youngest person to lead the Labor Party the longest. there. than the youngest person to become head of government in New Zealand.
The previous record for seats won by Labor dates back to 2002, when the party, at the time led by Helen Clark, prime minister from 1999 to 2008, won 52 seats. The last time a New Zealand party won more than 61 seats was in 1990, when the National Party won 67; but at that time the electoral system was not the current one.
The elections, which normally take place every three years, were supposed to be held on September 19, but had been postponed to October at the request of opposition parties, according to which restrictions to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic they had given the parties an unfair advantage. of the majority and prevented others from campaigning enough. Polling stations had been open from October 3 to allow elections to be held in accordance with anti-contagion rules.
In New Zealand, voters have two preferences: one for a party and one for an MP, and the vote can be split. It is a mixed, majority and proportional system similar to German: to enter parliament, a party must cross the threshold of 5% of the votes at the national level or win seats in single-member districts. There are also reserved seats for candidates of Maori origin.
I referendum
In addition to electing MPs, New Zealanders also voted in favor of two referendums: one on the legalization of cannabis and the other on theElection Act at End of Service Life 2019, which would allow terminally ill people to request assisted suicide. The preliminary results of the referendums will be released on October 30, while the official results will be released on November 6. L ‘Choice law at the end of life it will come into effect automatically if Yes gets more than 50 percent of the votes. The cannabis referendum, on the other hand, is consultative: even if the Yes, in favor of legalization wins, it will be necessary for the new government to introduce a law to implement legalization.
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