New Zealand will delay its general elections by a month due to the outbreak of Covid-19 in Auckland, said the country’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
Calls were growing from opposition parties to move the elections, with opposition leaders saying it was not “normal and honest” to hold an election while an outbreak was underway and level 3 restrictions were in place. largest city of the country, banned campaign.
Ardern said, after consulting with every political party in parliament, such as the election commission, she had decided to move the general election from September 19 to October 17.
She said her first suggestion to move it by two weeks was rejected by the election commission as not enough time to prepare logistics such as locations.
“The Electoral Commission, through the Department of Justice, has advised me that a safe and accessible election is due by this date,” Ardern said. “Shifting the date by four weeks also gives all parties a fair shot at campaigning and provides New Zealanders with certainty without unnecessarily long delays.”
Ardern said Covid-19 would be with the world “for some time to come” and repeated pressure on election day would not reduce the risk of disruption to voters and parties.
“This is why the Electoral Commission has planned for the possibility of holding an election where the country is at level 2, and with some parts at level 3. I will not change the election date again.”
New Zealand is in the midst of its first outbreak since eliminating the disease in June, with dozens of people infected and quarantined in Auckland, a city of 1.5 million.
On Monday, nine news cases of Covid-19 were reported, bringing the total number of cases related to the southern Auckland cluster to 58. Māori and Pacific people have been disproportionately infected by the latest outbreak.
Five people sitting in the hospital are being treated for the disease, and the source of the outbreak remained a mystery, the health ministry said.
“We do not yet have any specific indications about the origin of the outbreak,” said Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield.
“Our first focus is on mapping the extent of it and managing the outbreak, once we have the full picture, we are much more likely to go back and trace its origins.”
“We may be able to find hints about where, but we may not yet answer the question of how it was transmitted.”
Test numbers remained at “unusual levels,” he said.
The leader of the National Party, Judith Collins, said that holding an election in September would disadvantage opposition parties, and she had pushed for the elections to be moved to November or next year.
“We recognize the new date,” Collins says.
‘It has always been of the National Indication that in order to have a fair, democratic election, we needed to address this second wave of Covid-19 so that politicians from all parties had a reasonable chance of presenting their policies, and it audience felt comfortable entering the campaign without endangering their health. ”
The first leader of New Zealand, Winston Peters, who is also Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, welcomes the new date. ‘First of New Zealand is happy that common sense has overcome. “We were concerned that the Covid outbreak would have the effect of limiting campaigns to an unacceptably short period,” Peters said in a statement.
“Voters are sovereign. Holding an election in the event of a Covid outbreak carries the risk of serious interference in our democracy. Voters would be expected to exercise their voting rights with a disregard of information and that is unacceptable. With a delay, parties can now prepare to start campaigning again, confident that they have the time and resources to participate in a free and fair election. ”
Parliament would attend Monday again and then dissolve on September 6. Advance voting would open on October 3rd.
Like voting for a new government, there will also be two questions on referendums on the ballot papers: whether marijuana use will legalize and whether euthanasia will legalize.
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