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FILE PHOTO: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern participates in a televised debate with national leader Judith Collins on TVNZ in Auckland, New Zealand on September 22, 2020. Fiona Goodall / Pool via REUTERS
WELLINGTON – Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s center-left Labor Party scored a landslide victory in New Zealand’s general election on Saturday, when voters rewarded her for a decisive response to COVID-19.
The term means the 40-year-old Ardern could form the first one-party government in decades and face the challenge of delivering on the progressive transformation he promised but failed to achieve in his first term, where Labor shared power with a nationalist party. .
“This is a historic change,” said political commentator Bryce Edwards of Victoria University in Wellington, describing the vote as one of the biggest changes in New Zealand’s electoral history in 80 years.
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.
Ardern left his home in Auckland, greeted and hugged the assembled fans. The leader of the opposition National Party Judith Collins said she had called the prime minister to congratulate her on an “outstanding result.”
Labor won 49.0% of the vote, far ahead of National with 27%, the Election Commission said, with 77% of the vote counted in an election that was largely a referendum on aggressive handling of Burning from COVID-19.
“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.
Geoffrey Miller, an analyst for the political website Democracy Project, said the victory was “a personal triumph for Jacinda Ardern’s popularity and ‘superstar’ branding.”
Of the current Ardern coalition partners, the First Nationalist Party of New Zealand had 2.6% and the Green Party had 7.6%. 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 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 such as women’s rights and social justice, at home Ardern faced criticism because her government failed to deliver on its promise to be transformative.
Life has returned to normal in New Zealand, but its borders are still closed, its tourism sector is bleeding, and economists predict a lasting recession after the harsh blockades.
The economy contracted at an annual rate of 12.2% in the second quarter, its steepest decline since the Great Depression. Debt is projected to rise to 56% of gross domestic product from less than 20% before the pandemic.
New Zealanders also voted in referendums on Saturday to legalize euthanasia and recreational marijuana, with the results to 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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