After giving a preview for the general election you can now read about all the talking points here from the election.
Labour Landslide!
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has won a landslide victory in the country's general election, leveraging success battling Covid-19 to gain an unprecedented outright majority. When two thirds of the votes were counted, Ms Ardern's centre-left Labour Party was on 49.2% and forecast to take around 64 seats in the 120-member parliament. No leader has achieved an absolute majority since they implemented their current voting system.
Proportional voting is not immune to landslide victories
No leader has achieved an outright majority since New Zealand adopted a proportional voting system in 1996 despite favoritism toward smaller parties it is not immune to landslides.
Influence in the United States?
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, after her historic re-election win she credits with her administration’s success in containing the country’s coronavirus outbreaks, said Sunday that Americans—who themselves will head to the polls to elect a leader in two weeks—should be wary of partisan politics, saying it can “be damaging for democracy.” According to the Associated Press, Ardern said it was her hope that voters worldwide would be able to come together and see beyond the partisan differences.
Biggest Labour victory in over fifty years!
Jacinda Adhern delivered the biggest victory for centre left labour in fifty years on Saturday after voters rewarded her for decisive leadership in recent months. The mandate means the 40 year old could form the biggest single party government in decades. Adhern said: “We will govern as we campaigned positively with optimism about our future, with a relentless focus on a recovery that brings New Zealanders with us to deliver long lasting change. Now, more than ever is the time to keep going, to keep working, to grab hold of the opportunities that lay in front of us. So let’s step forward”.
Is free speech under threat?
The newly formed Advance New Zealand party had their page taken from Facebook two days before the after they were accused of spreading ‘misinformation’ about covid 19 while on the other side of the globe in the United States a free speech rally was marred by violence as counter protesters storm event. A rally to promote free speech and denounce big tech censorship turned violent on Saturday in San Francisco when hundreds of alleged Antifa counter protesters showed up. The conservative group Team Save America organised the event to protest twitter, which it argues censors free speech as many posts regarding the general election in New Zealand also got censored.
Full house sports events!
Due to the labour party elimination of Covid 19 a superb second-half display gave New Zealand at 27-7 win over Australia in their second Bledisloe Cup match at a near sold-out Eden Park in Auckland. After a dramatic draw in the opening game last week, the All Blacks led 10-7 at half-time which they got fans to see unlike the six nations games coming up in Europe.
Post pandemic politics!
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern delivered the biggest election victory for her centre-left Labour Party with the main reason being her covid 19 action; could we see similar things across the globe?
Multiple key moments
Jacinda Ardern’s previous term as prime minister saw the country weather multiple crises, including the coronavirus pandemic and the 2019 killing of 51 Muslims by a white supremacist at two mosques in Christchurch. Adhern was first elected in 2017. The prime minister said on Sunday that she plans to form a new government in the next three weeks with an eye toward responding to the virus as they hope to mount an economic recovery. New Zealand’s handling of the virus has been hailed as a success story, with a total of under 2,000 cases and 25 deaths. “We’re cracking on very quickly with the work we need to do as a new team,”Jacinda Ardern said. New Zealand this weekend reported its first case of community transmission of the virus in three weeks, which it linked to a man, who works at foreign ships at the country’s ports. Officials believe the man was identified quickly enough that they were able to contain wider spread. Ardern also said British, Danish, Spanish and Canadian leaders had already congratulated her but said it was far too early to consider running in the next election. “I’ve just run in 2020. I haven’t yet taken a weekend,” she said.
Border hopping still happening!
Twenty-three people from New Zealand have “jumped borders”, arriving in Perth via a trans-Tasman travel bubble and are now in quarantine. It appears that many Kiwi people are not cautious whenever it comes to Covid 19 despite the popularity of Labour.
Not over 50% of votes for Labour just yet
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Party has won over 49 per cent votes in the general elections. At 26.9% of the votes, the National Party is in second place. Ardern’s party has won a majority however, the biggest victory for the Labour Party in over 50 years. This will also be the first time that a party will be governing alone since New Zealand moved to the MMP electoral system in 1996. With nearly 50 per cent of the vote, the party will get more than the 61 seats.
Media Bias
A New Zealand journalist is being praised after a brutal four-minute interview with an ousted politician in whom she called him a 'loser' and a 'narcissist'. The ‘loser’ term was directed at Jamie Lee-Ross (Advance NZ) for his Covid 19 beliefs.
Populism rejected
Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s Labour prime minister who was returned to power for a second term by calling out the likes of New Zealand first and Advance New Zealand.
The rise of the Greens
The mood at the election headquarters of New Zealand’s Green party was triumphal, almost as though the party had won the election outright. The election result was everything they hoped for with 7.6% of the party vote.
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