Polls say Ardern on way to landslide win
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is widely expected to win a second term this weekend, buoyed by a decisive yet compassionate leadership style under crisis, with polls showing her centre-left Labour Party comfortably in front.
Ms Ardern’s globally lauded responses to the country’s worst mass shooting and the coronavirus pandemic were also well received at home, although questions have been asked of Labour’s credentials to tackle the looming economic crisis.
While it was initially thought Ms Ardern could lead Labour to the country’s first outright majority government since New Zealand adopted a proportional voting system in 1996, more recent polls have indicated she may need to lean on support from the minor Green Party.
That would produce the country’s first pure left-leaning government since 1999. Current coalition partner, nationalist New Zealand First, led by deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, is likely to exit parliament, according to the polls.
“It is hard to see an election outcome which does not return Jacinda Ardern as prime minister,” said former prime minister Helen Clark and co-chair of a World Health Organization (WHO) panel looking at the global coronavirus response.
“The election occurs in the context of the pandemic, and her response to it has been highly rated,” said Ms Clark. Ms Ardern, 40, worked as a researcher in Ms Clark’s office shortly after graduating from university.
Ms Ardern removed all coronavirus restrictions last week after a second series of lockdowns and social distancing measures to eliminate Covid-19 transmission in the country of 5 million.
She this week joined 31,000 rugby fans at a Wellington stadium to watch the All Blacks take on the Australian Wallabies, becoming one of the first international sporting events to allow spectators.
“I say to the world ... welcome to paradise,” one fan shouted to television cameras broadcasting the game. Ms Ardern herself is often mobbed at public events by fans bearing selfie sticks.