New Zealand: Jacinda Ardern saturday won a second term as the New Zealand’s Prime Minister. Her success at handling the country’s coronavirus outbreak helped secure a landslide victory.
Ardern’s center-left Labour Party has won 48.9% of the vote with 87% of the votes counted, meaning her party looks likely to score the highest result that any party has achieved since the current political system was introduced.
“Tonight, New Zealand has shown the Labour Party its greatest support in at least 50 years,” Ardern said in a powerful victory speech on Saturday night where she referred to the difficult times ahead for New Zealand. “And I can promise you: we will be a party that governs for every New Zealander.”
Coalitions are the norm in New Zealand, where no single party has ever won a majority of votes under the current system.
Labour’s main opposition, the center-right National Party, is on 27% – down on last election’s 44% and likely to be the party’s worst result since 2002.
Jacinda Ardern, when became Prime Minister in 2017 at the age of 37, she was New Zealand’s third female leader and one of the youngest leaders in the world. Within a year, she had given birth in office-only the second world leader ever to do so.
She also won praise for her empathetic handling of major crises. After the 2019 terror attack on two Christchurch mosques which left 51 people dead, she introduced swift gun law changes and donned a hijab when she met with the Muslim community.
