San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Prime minister wins reelection in landslide vote
AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern won a second term in office Saturday in an election landslide of historic proportions.
With most votes counted, Ardern’s liberal Labor Party was winning 49% of the vote compared to 27% for its main challenger, the conservative National Party.
Labor was on target to win an outright majority of the seats in Parliament, something that hasn’t happened since New Zealand implemented a proportional voting system 24 years ago. Typically, parties must form alliances to govern, but this time Ardern and Labor can go it alone.
In a victory speech in front of hundreds of cheering supporters in Auckland, Ardern said her party had gotten more support from New Zealanders that at any time in at least 50 years.
“This has not been an ordinary election, and it’s not an ordinary time,” she said. “It’s been full of uncertainty and anxiety, and we set out to be an antidote to that.”
On the campaign trail, Ardern was greeted like a rock star by people who crammed into malls and spilled onto streets to cheer her on. Her popularity soared this year after she led a successful effort to stamp out the coronavirus. There is currently no community spread of the virus in the nation of 5 million, and people are no longer required to wear masks or social distance.
Ardern, 40, won the top job after the 2017 election when Labor formed an alliance with two other parties. The following year, she became only the second world leader to give birth while in office.
She became a role model for working mothers around the world, many of whom saw her as a counterpoint to President Trump. And she was praised for her handling of last year’s attack on two Christchurch mosques, when a white supremacist gunned down 51
Muslim worshipers.
She moved quickly to pass new laws banning the deadliest types of semiautomatic weapons.
In late March this year, when only about 100 people had tested positive for COVID19, Ardern and her health officials put New Zealand into a strict lockdown with a motto of “Go hard and go early.”
Voters also had a say on two contentious social issues — whether to legalize marijuana and euthanasia. Polls taken before the election indicated the euthanasia referendum was likely to pass while the outcome of the marijuana vote remained uncertain. The results of both referendums will be announced Oct. 30.
Nick Perry is an Associated Press writer.