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AUCKLAND, New Zealand – A day after winning a second term in a land victory, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Sunday that she views the election result as endorsement of her government’s efforts to end the coronavirus and restart the economy.
Speaking at a cafe near his home in Auckland, Ardern said he hopes to form a new government within three weeks and prioritize work on responding to the virus.
“We are moving very fast with the work that we have to do as a new team,” Ardern said.
His comments came as health officials reported a new case of community transmission after New Zealand went three weeks without any new infections. Authorities said the man works on foreign ships in ports and believe they caught his case early enough to contain the threat of further spread.
In the elections, Ardern’s liberal Labor Party won 49 percent of the vote, crushing the conservative National Party, which won 27 percent. Ardern said the margin of victory exceeded his expectations.
The result will give Labor an absolute majority in Parliament, the first time a party has achieved this since New Zealand implemented a proportional voting system 24 years ago. Usually the parties have formed alliances to govern, but this time Labor can do it alone.
When asked what he would say to Americans who might be inspired by his victory before the US election, Ardern said he hoped that people globally could overcome the partisan divisions that elections often accentuate.
“That can be detrimental to democracy, regardless of which side of the House you sit on,” he said.
Ardern’s popularity soared earlier this year after he led a successful effort to stop the spread of the virus by implementing a strict lockdown in late March. New Zealand has had fewer than 2,000 cases of the virus, including 25 deaths.
Ardern, 40, won the top job in the 2017 election. The following year, she became the second world leader to give birth while in office. In 2019, she was praised for her empathetic response to a massacre at two Christchurch mosques in which a gunman killed 51 Muslim worshipers.
