With 87% of the vote counted, Arden’s center-left Labor Party has received .948..9% of the vote, which means his party seems likely to have the highest result of any party since the introduction of the current political system in 1996.
“Tonight, New Zealand has shown its biggest support to the Labor Party in at least 50 years,” Ardern said in a powerful victory speech on Saturday night where he noted the difficult times ahead for New Zealand. “And I can promise you: we will be a party that rules for every New Zealander.”
Coalition is a common norm in New Zealand, where neither party has won a majority under today’s system.
Labor’s main opposition, the center-right National Party, is at 27% – down from 44% in the last election and the party’s worst result since 2002.
National leader Judith Collins said he had called on Arden to accept defeat and congratulate Arden on his “excellent result” for the Labor Party.
The results are still being calculated. Final results will be announced in three weeks after special votes are counted – including votes cast by New Zealanders living abroad.
Preliminary calculations also show a large swing to the left, with Labor significantly increasing the Labor% of the last election, while its current coalition partner, the Green Party, is sitting at 7.3%, up from 3.3% in the last election. .
Labor is hovering around 50% of the vote for most of the election night. The possibility will not be clear until Labor has ruled alone or will need to form an alliance with the Greens until the final results come out, but Victoria University politics spokeswoman Claire Timperley said before the election that workers would not be “stupid”. Negotiate with the Greens, even if Labor gains a clear majority.
Labor’s other current coalition partner, New Zealand First, has not received enough votes to make it to parliament again, while the right-wing ACT party is currently at 0.5%, up from 0.5% in the last election.
Ordern’s possible election was backed by his “go hard and go early” approach to coronavirus handling, which has helped New Zealand avoid a catastrophic outbreak seen elsewhere. The country was the first to close its borders and Arden announced a nationwide lockdown in March when it had only 102 cases.
A total of less than 2,000 cases and 25 deaths have been reported in New Zealand since the outbreak began.
Earlier this year, polls suggested there could be national and labor for tighter elections. Arden’s international popularity was overwhelming, but he was disappointed by the lack of progress on key promises, including addressing some exaggerated housing markets on his way home.
But that all changed during the epidemic. New Zealand recorded their biggest quarterly economic downturn on record and the second outbreak in Caland, the country’s largest city, prompted the prime minister to delay the election by a month.
Collins of the Nationals – the party’s third leader this year – put his professional party better at handling the economic consequences of the epidemic, but struggled to gain ground against New Zealand’s most popular leaders ever.
“We always knew it was going to be difficult, weren’t we?” Collins said during his relaxation speech on Saturday. “We will take time to reflect, and review, and change. The nation will become stronger, more disciplined and more connected with this loss.
“I tell everyone: we’ll be back.”
Record early turn
As of Friday, shy of just 2 million people – or 57% of all registered voters – had already cast ballots at polling stations across the country, including Collins and Arden.
Lara Greaves, a New Zealand politics spokeswoman at Land Clandestine University, said a high-level advance poll could be related to Covid-19 – voters wanted to avoid lines and the possibility of a new Covid-19 outbreak could affect their ability. To vote on the day.
He said that along with the election, two referendums could speed up voting – one on legalizing euthanasia and the other on the recreational use of cannabis. Preliminary results will be announced later this month.
What to expect from the second term
When Arden became prime minister in 2017 at the age of 37, she was New Zealand’s third female leader and one of the world’s youngest leaders. Within a year, he was born in office fees – the only other world leader to do so.
She also received praise for her sympathetic management of major crises. After a terrorist attack on two Christchurch mosques in 2019 that killed 51 people, she changed the Swift Gun Act and wore the hijab when she met with the local Muslim community.
After White Island, an active volcanic island, frequented by tourists, erupted last December, killing 21, Arden quickly landed again, embracing the first responders.
But while he has promised a government of “change”, his critics argue he has not done enough to address inequality, child poverty, climate change and the housing market.
Arden is ready to face another difficult period ahead, as he tries to address those issues while driving the country through economic consequences from the coronavirus epidemic. But political analysts do not expect surprising flagship policies – instead, they predict that Arden will continue to make increasing changes.
“Real change requires steps that bring people with us,” Ardern said in the country’s final election debate on Thursday. “I’m standing with my record … I haven’t done it yet.”
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