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Ardern’s opponent Collins admits defeat after falling behind with a quarter of the votes to be counted.
Jacinda Ardern’s center-left Labor Party won the New Zealand general election after Prime Minister Judith Collins’ opponent admitted defeat on Saturday with nearly a quarter of the votes yet to be counted.
Labor won 49 percent of the vote, well ahead of National with 27 percent, the Election Commission said, with 77 percent of the votes counted in an election that was largely a referendum on aggressive driving. of Ardern from the COVID-19 epidemic.
Labor was on track to win 64 of the 120 seats in the country’s unicameral parliament, the highest of any party since New Zealand adopted a proportional voting system in 1996.
If Labor wins more than half the seats, Ardern could form the first one-party government under the current system.
After the opposition leader of the National Party Collins conceded, Ardern left his home in Auckland, greeting and hugging the assembled supporters.
“To Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, whom I have telephoned, congratulations on her result because it is, I believe, an outstanding result for the Labor Party,” Collins said in a televised address.
“People were very grateful and very happy with the way we handle COVID, they like the way we plan for the future for the economy,” said Finance Minister Grant Robertson, one of Labor’s top MPs.
Of Ardern’s current coalition partners, New Zealand’s First Nationalist Party had 2.6 percent of the vote and the Green Party 7.6 percent. If he cannot form a Labor-only government, he is expected to continue to rely on the lesser Greens as he disposes of New Zealand First.
A Labor-Green coalition would be the first fully left-wing government since the 1970s, a scenario that National’s Collins warned would mean more taxes and a hostile environment for business.
Ardern has pledged to raise taxes on the highest earners, while Collins promised short-term tax cuts, but they have otherwise shown few major differences in policy.
‘Be strong, be kind’
The prime minister received worldwide acclaim for her handling of a mass shooting last year by a white supremacist at a mosque in Christchurch, with her inclusive mantra “be strong, be kind” and her swift action to ban guns.
She honed that reputation this year with a “push yourself, go early” approach to the novel coronavirus, which has eliminated the local spread of COVID-19 across the nation.
The election was delayed a month after new COVID-19 infections in Auckland, which led to a second shutdown in the country’s largest city.
While internationally known for promoting progressive causes like women’s rights and social justice, at home Ardern faced criticism because her government failed to deliver on its promise to be transformative.
New Zealanders also voted in referendums on Saturday to legalize euthanasia and recreational cannabis, the results of which will be announced on October 30.
This latest vote could make New Zealand the third country in the world to allow the use and sale of cannabis by adults across the country, after Uruguay and Canada.
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