New Zealand Prime Minister Ardern Hits Success in Fighting Pandemic in Polls | New Zealand



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Ardern’s Labor Party is expected to win the October 17 election with a wide lead over the conservative National Party.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern polished her leadership credentials on Sunday on the back of her successful response to the coronavirus pandemic at a campaign rally six days before the country’s elections on October 17.

Polls show that Ardern’s Labor Party is expected to win the election with a wide lead over the conservative National Party, and could form a government in a coalition with the Greens and New Zealand First.

“While there was no playbook for COVID-19, we struggled and committed early to an elimination strategy which has meant that when we have had new cases, we have circled them and eliminated them and opened our economy. faster than others, “Ardern said at a campaign rally in the capital Wellington.

“I will always maintain that it has been and will continue to be the right thing to do.”

New Zealand, with 1,514 confirmed COVID-19 cases and just 25 deaths in a population of five million, has been praised, along with South Korea and Taiwan, for its success in fighting the novel coronavirus, in part due to the quick blocking measures.

Ardern, 40, became the youngest female leader in the world in 2017 and has great appeal following her strong response to the pandemic and her handling of last year’s shooting by a white supremacist at two mosques in the worst murder. en masse from New Zealand.

She is running for re-election on a platform to boost infrastructure spending, address the country’s chronic housing shortage, improve healthcare and achieve 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030.

Ardern’s closest competitor in the race is National Party’s Judith Collins, who has promised more jobs and lower taxes if her party wins.

He also warned against a possible coalition government between Labor and the Green Party, which he said would raise new taxes.

“This (the estate tax) will strike fear in all New Zealanders who are working hard to create a better life for themselves and their family, particularly our older New Zealanders who will be affected by this new tax,” Collins said. .

The Labor Party has denied that it agrees with the Green Party’s proposal for a so-called “wealth tax.”



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