New Zealand PM Ardern wins 2nd term in landslide victory

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she will form a government within three weeks, as her center-left Labour Party won a landslide victory in the country's general elections.

With all votes counted, Arden’s party garnered 49.1% in Saturday's poll.

Her party won 64 of the 120 seats in the country’s unicameral parliament, the highest since the nation adopted a proportional voting system in 1996.

The majority in parliament will allow the 40-year-old prime minister to form the first single-party government in decades.

Arden, however, did not say if she would rule alone or form a coalition.

Her party had been in a coalition with the Green Party and the nationalist New Zealand First party, for the last three years.

“I have been a consensus builder but I also need to work with the mandate that Labour has been given as well,” Ardern said.

“I have said to the Greens that I would talk to them next week,” she said. “I don’t want to draw any conclusion at this point.”

The Greens returned with a bigger mandate of 7.6% of the vote, but the First Party led by Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, with just 2.6% did not gather enough support to return to parliament. 

The opposition center-right National Party won 26.8% of the votes and will secure just 35 seats in the assembly, according to the Electoral Commission.

Party leader Judith Collins said she congratulated Arden for an “outstanding result,” but promised her party would be a "robust opposition.”

New Zealand’s prime minister postpones general elections

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern postpones the country’s general elections by a month under pressure from the opposition, which said the current coronavirus lockdown in Auckland would work to their disadvantage.

The election, which was originally to be held in September, was postponed by a month after a renewed coronavirus outbreak in the country.

Millions of people cast ballots in early polling ahead of Saturday’s vote.

After the election, Arden told her supporters that she “will not take your support for granted. And I can promise you we will be a party that governs for every New Zealander."

Arden, who called the poll "the COVID election," vowed to build an economy that works for everyone, create jobs, train people, protect the environment and address climate challenges and social inequalities.

Political commentator Bryce Edwards of Victoria University in Wellington described the vote as “a historic shift,” saying it was one of the biggest swings in New Zealand’s electoral history in 80 years.

New Zealand’s PM rejects Trump’s coronavirus ‘big surge’ claim

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern describes as “patently wrong” a claim by US President Donald Trump that her country is experiencing a “big surge” in coronavirus outbreak.

Analysts, however, say things are going to be different during Arden's second term, as the country is facing recession for the first time in 11 years and the coronavirus pandemic still looming large.

Although Arden was praised by many for her success in twice eliminating the virus, she is being criticized by those who say she does not have a clear COVID-19 recovery plan.

A new case of the disease was reported on Sunday. Health officials said the infected person was identified early and the risk of transmission was contained.

New Zealand has had just 25 deaths and around 1,500 infections.

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