2020 Election Results: Labor’s Jacinda Ardern Wins Second Term, Crushes National’s Judith Collins; Winston Peters and NZ First out

LAST CHOICE
* It’s a red sea! Work comes to victory and can rule alone
* Jacinda Ardern praises historic victory, promises to rule for “all New Zealanders”
* Judith Collins crushed, congratulates Ardern on “outstanding result”
* National Deputy Leader Gerry Brownlee among the list of high-profile Native MPs who have lost electorate seats in a night of misery: Natives get only 27% of the vote
* NZ First and Winston Peters out of Parliament with only 2.6% of the vote
* Green (7.6%) and Act (8%) will have 10 MP each
* Maori party back in Parliament, Rawiri Waititi defeats Labor Tamati Coffey in Waiariki
* Chloe Swarbrick of the Greens wins Auckland Central in one of the biggest upsets of the night

Labor leader Jacinda Ardern has been rewarded by voters with a landslide victory, handing over her power in her own right and an outright beating to the National Party.

Labor has nearly 50 percent of the vote, the most any party has achieved under the MMP and easy enough to govern without relying on another party, meaning it will win more than the 61 seats required for a parliamentary majority.

However, the night was an absolute bloodbath for Judith Collins’ National Party, and the former Labor coalition partner NZ First was ousted from Parliament. It scored well under 30 percent, a score that would give it around 35 seats. That is 20 less than in the last elections.

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As she left Sandringham’s main gate last night, bound for Labor headquarters, the Prime Minister was greeted with raucous cheers as the crowd came forward to greet her.

Ardern came to Auckland City Hall to jubilant scenes and joined his partner Clarke Gayford and fellow Labor MPs on stage.

“Tonight New Zealand has shown the Labor Party its strongest support in at least 50 years,” he told his supporters.

She acknowledged voters who had changed allegiance to National.

“For those of you who may not have supported Labor before … I thank you. We will not take your support for granted.”

He said Labor would be a party that works for “all New Zealanders.”

The work was committed to key infrastructure, 100% electricity renewal, the environment, and supporting people at risk.

“In the next three years there is a lot of work to do. We will rebuild better from the Covid crisis; stronger with responses to the [things] New Zealand is already facing it. “

The Green Party is on track to get around 8 percent of the vote, and MP Chloe Swarbrick is well placed to win the Auckland Central electorate.

Ardern did not want to say if he still intended to invite the Green Party into government, or what role they might play. He said that many voters who had never voted for the Labor Party before had done so to give the party the ability to act quickly to address the problems that Covid-19 had left behind.

“They’ve done it because they want us to move forward, they want us to move forward quickly and quickly in recovery. They don’t want too much complexity, so I’ll take all of that into account in the work that we do in the future.”

Green co-leader Marama Davidson congratulated Ardern on “an extraordinary victory” and said the Greens hoped to be part of a “strong and truly progressive government.”

Former NZ First Deputy Prime Minister leader Winston Peters graciously accepted the loss of his party but gave no indication of his plans.

“As for the next challenge, we will all have to wait and see.”

Ardern indicated that Deputy Leader Kelvin Davis would become Deputy Prime Minister.
The law’s leader, David Seymour, was ready to get about 10 MPs into Parliament.

The Maori Party had a chance to return to Parliament: the contest between Tamati Coffey of the Labor Party and Rawiri Waititi of the Maori Party was very fine.
Ardern was at his home in Sandringham when the results came in.

Gayford spent the night at the barbecue and surprised the media and residents with fish bites made from his catch on a fishing trip with his father and brother-in-law. He also made venison patties after killing a deer during a hunting trip.

Earlier yesterday, Ardern handed out homemade cheese buns to Labor volunteers at the Polish House in Sandringham.

Former Prime Minister Helen Clark said last night that there would be “a lot of novices” entering Parliament for Labor.

The final recount and special votes are unlikely to change the outcome of Labor’s election night much – Labor often win a seat on those votes.

Speaking to supporters at National’s headquarters at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron in central Auckland, Collins said he called Ardern and congratulated her on an excellent result for Labor.

“Just to avoid any doubts, tonight is the beginning of the next campaign. Let 2023 come,” he said at the end of his speech.

National is also in danger of losing more than 15 of its electoral seats, including several traditional strongholds.

Among them was Ilam, the Christchurch seat held by deputy party leader Gerry Brownlee since 1996. However. Brownlee would be on the list again if he decided to stay, and Paul Goldsmith seemed confident too.

Brownlee acknowledged that it was a bad night for his party, attributing it to Covid-19 rather than Collins’ leadership or the campaign he had run.

Other national MPs were less lenient: Simon Bridges and Mark Mitchell pointed to mistakes in the campaign, but both said Collins didn’t deserve to take all the blame.

Collins had to start from a standstill in July after leadership changed from Simon
Bridges to Todd Muller in May, and then to Collins in July after Muller resigned.

That and a slew of resignations from high-profile MPs like Paula Bennett and Nikki Kaye.
It was too much to go back.

Ardern had emphasized the message of stability and certainty to voters in an election that was inevitably about who voters trusted the most to deal with the Covid-19 environment, and was rewarded accordingly.

Here’s a full rundown of how the night unfolded: