‘Jacinda-mania’ falls short in New Zealand stalemate

NEW Zealand’s election ended in a stalemate yesterday, leaving a maverick populist to decide whether the conservative prime minister or his youthful challenger will form a government.

Bill English, the prime minister since last December, delivered an unexpectedly strong performance to claim 46 per cent of the vote, while the muchhyped “Jacinda-mania” surrounding Jacinda Ardern, 37, a former policy ad- viser to Tony Blair, fell short as she finished on 36. “Of course we were hoping for higher … obviously we hoped for better,” said Ms Ardern, who was on course for an upset win after taking over the Labour Party last month.

It could be another two weeks before the outcome is known, with Winston Peters, who leads the anti-immigration New Zealand First party, saying he was in no hurry to decide who to support. The major parties must forge coalitions to reach a majority under New Zealand’s proportional voting system, but all of the existing groupings fell short. On the final count, Mr English’s National Party and ally ACT had 59 seats, two shy of the 61 needed to win.

Ms Ardern’s centre-Left Labour Party and its preferred partner the Greens were on 52, still needing another nine. That means neither can govern without Mr Peters’ NZF, which claimed nine seats. Mr Peters, 72, a political veteran who has played the kingmaker in two previous elections, said he had an important decision to make and would not be rushed. “As things stand we do have the balance of political responsibility and we’re not going to be hasty with that,” he said.

The campaign has been the most volatile in recent memory, with momentum swinging from Mr English to Ms Ardern and then back again. Mr English was in the driving seat to win a fourth term until Ms Ardern took over the Labour Party last month.

She built support for the ailing centre-Left party, but it waned as Mr English attacked her financial credibility.