The rest of the country was locked up in slot two, with both lockdown periods extended to at least August 26 when further cases of coronavirus were confirmed.
But at a live streaming media conference on Monday, Ardern said it was clear “the relocation of Covid to Auckland at the start of the formal campaign period has given cause for concern.”
Ardern said the New Zealand Electoral Commission had assured them that a safe and accessible election would be possible on the new date.
“Ultimately, I want to make sure we have a well-conducted election that gives all voters the best chance to receive all the information about parties and candidates and provides certainty for the future,” she said.
Ardern said while the decision to rest the election date only with her as prime minister, she consulted with other party leaders as “moving an election date especially this late in an election cycle is an important decision.”
“In the end what matters most is what is in the best interests of voters and our democracy,” she said. “Any decision to challenge the election date must be as free from partisan political interests as possible.”
Ardern said the New Zealand Electoral Commission is preparing for a range of circumstances, such as holding an election in lockdown two or three, and that it does not intend to change the election date again.
“Even if I had not picked up the phone and someone had sought contact, I believe this is the outcome where I would come from,” she said. “Covid is the new normal of the world. Here in New Zealand we all work as hard as we can to make sure our new normal disrupts our lives as little as possible.”
The Parliament of New Zealand will now attend Tuesday again and will be dissolved on September 6 ahead of the October question and answer session.
The commission said it had always prepared for the elections to run as under Alert Level 2 restrictions, with planned measures including contact detection, hand sanitizer provision and physical distance.
Opposition lawmakers respond
“Holding an election during a Covid outbreak has the risk of serious interference in our democracy. Voters would be expected to exercise their voting rights with a lack of information and that is unacceptable,” Peters said.
New Zealand has already spent five weeks under one of the world’s toughest lockdowns, closing most businesses and schools from March 25, and saw people stay at home.
Monday’s numbers announced in a live streamed update, Health Director Dr Ashley Bloomfield said record levels of testing took place, with nearly 100,000 of New Zealand’s 597,956 Covid-19 tests in the last week or so.
“When we look at the number of new cases today – seeing the extent of testing that has happened over the past few days – I think that is encouraging,” Bloomfield said. “The meaning we have is that we are currently dealing with a single cluster – a single outbreak – and thanks to the efforts of the community to come forward for that test we are getting … a full idea of the outline of the outbreak. “
But Bloomfield said the origin of the outbreak remained a mystery: “Somehow the virus is crossing the border – I think we trust it did not go on as a kind of slow-burning member of the community – the ask where it comes from across the border and what is it that we are trying to answer. “
CNN’s Susannah Cullinane reported from Auckland and Samantha Beech reported from Atlanta.
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