[ad_1]
WELLINGTON: After a resounding electoral victory, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Sunday (October 18) that she would form a government in three weeks, but declined to say whether she would rule alone or form a coalition.
Ardern won the biggest electoral victory for his center-left Labor Party in half a century on Saturday. His new majority in parliament will allow him to form the first one-party government since New Zealand adopted a proportional voting system in 1996.
“While there will be another three weeks before we have that final result, my expectation is that we will work on the formation of the government within that framework,” Ardern told a news conference.
Labor won 64 of 120 seats in the country’s unicameral parliament.
For the past three years, Ardern was in a coalition with the Green Party and the Nationalist First New Zealand Party. Although he no longer needs support, coalitions are the norm in New Zealand as parties seek to build consensus.
“I have been a consensus builder, but I also need to work with the mandate that Labor has been given,” Ardern said.
“I have told the Greens that I would speak to them next week,” he said. “I don’t want to draw any conclusions at this point.”
READ: New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern: An electoral victory forged in crisis
The Greens returned with a mandate greater than 7.6 percent of the vote, but NZ First, led by Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, did not get enough support to return to parliament.
The Maori Party, which represents the indigenous community that is about 15 percent of the population, returned to parliament.
The resounding victory is an affirmative vote for the democratic and progressive Ardern government and for its leadership in crushing COVID-19 in the country, as well as for its handling of a massacre of 51 worshipers in two Christchurch mosques and a fatal volcanic eruption. .
Ardern, 40, honed his reputation this year with his “go hard, go early” approach to COVID-19, which had nearly eliminated the coronavirus in the country, until a new case was reported Sunday.
New Zealand has had just 25 deaths and around 1,500 infections. In the new case, health officials said the infected person was identified early and the risk of transmission was contained.
Ardern maintains a strong international following with its advocacy on issues including women’s rights, social justice and multilateralism.
Still, there have been criticisms of its economic policies, and a looming summer season without international tourists will be a major test.
