2020 election results: Winston Peters admits defeat: ‘wait and see’ his next move

New Zealand First is out of Parliament, a blow that will fuel speculation as to whether Winston Peters has fought in his latest election campaign.

Peters conceded in a short speech to the party faithful in Russell.

He thanked the voters, volunteers and staff of NZ First in New Zealand.

“Three years ago we made a commitment to be a constructive partner with the government,” he said.

NZ First had tried “to provide certainty and stability in a rapidly changing world.”

“To those who have been successful tonight, our congratulations,” he said.

For 27 years, there has been a party that prepared to challenge the establishment.

“Tonight more than ever, that strength is still needed.”

However, Peters was coy about his next move: “As for the next challenge, we’ll all have to wait and see.”

Peters and NZ First have held the balance of power three times before.

The party is at about 2.6 percent, with the majority of preliminary votes tallied.

Shane Jones could have offered another way back by capturing Northland’s electorate, but he’s third behind National’s Matt King and Labor’s Willow-Jean Prime.

Peters is 75 years old and now the focus will be on whether 2020 was his last campaign. Any withdrawal could end NZ First as a political force, given how closely linked the populist party is to its founding leader.

NZ First held its election night performance at the Duke of Marlborough in Russell, Bay of Islands, with one half of the ground floor adorned with black and white balloons.

Earlier, Jones said that tonight’s results would be the “fruits of democracy,” however the night ended for the party.

But he added that it must be said that he and NZ First have delivered on their promise to the country’s regions, injecting investments into long-forgotten areas.

“No one will ever say of the last three years that NZ First and Shane Jones, for the north and the provinces, did not deliver.

“Sadly, Northland has been neglected for a long period of time.”

The result tonight is another twist in Peters’ political career, which began when he first ran for Parliament at age 30 and ran for the National in Northern Maori.

He entered parliament as a national deputy three years later, after a court order to overturn the election night result of the Hunua headquarters, the first controversy in a tumultuous career.

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That has included her separation from National in 1993 and the formation of NZ First, being fired from the cabinet by Jenny Shipley, serving as Foreign Minister under Helen Clark, meager years of support after losing Tauranga in 2008, and pestering National for capture Northland in a 2015 by choice.

In 2017, NZ First won 7.2 percent of the vote (nine seats) and the country held its breath when Peters revealed that he had chosen to form a coalition government with Ardern’s Labor, as deputy prime minister and foreign minister.

Peters’ pinstripe suits, stump speeches, short sentences, and combative approach from the debating chamber and media interviews have become hallmarks of modern New Zealand political history (“the last of the great characters in an increasingly bland political environment, “said NZ The first website described him once).

NZ First is defined by its opposition to foreign ownership and a free market approach to the economy, a desire to reduce immigration levels and policies to help its regional and largely elderly constituency, such as the Super Gold card scheme. .

The stance on immigration in particular has seen Peters accused of racism by political opponents, including former Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei.

The Covid-19 pandemic hit NZ First’s 2020 campaign and took immigration levels out of the spotlight, given the country’s closed borders.

Peters tried to differentiate NZ First from Labor and criticized elements of Covid’s response, saying his party would have brought in the military earlier to sort out the quarantine facilities and opened limited travel with Australia.

It ran both with what NZ First had stopped (a capital gains tax, for example) and what it had insured (the huge provincial growth fund, for example).

Peters’ campaign began after an undisclosed illness and a surgical procedure, and was haunted by an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office into the NZ First Foundation, an entity created to handle donations.

Two people face charges, it was announced late last month (with names suppressed, and not current deputies, candidates or party members), at which point Peters was criticized as a “James Comey-level error of judgment,” and NZ First is seeking a statement from the Superior Court. the OFS abused its powers.

Peters accepted a $ 100 bet with broadcaster Mike Hosking in the lead up to Election Day, saying that NZ First would remove the 5 percent threshold and return to Parliament.

“We have a surge right now,” he explained. “I can feel it in the streets and I can see it in the malls.”

After all, there was not enough momentum and NZ First faces an uncertain future.