Jacinda Ardern Wins New Zealand Election In A Landslide
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New Zealand will have another three years of Jacinda Ardern as Prime Minister after her party won the election by a landslide.
Ardern has been applauded for her handling of the ongoing health crisis, something that will have presumably helped her win the election. As of October 13, the country had zero patients in hospital with coronavirus.
The vote was originally set to take place in September, but was postponed due to the pandemic.
Ardern has thanked New Zealanders for their support and for all those who helped share the Labour Party’s message.
As per Sky News, the 40-year-old said in a statement:
Thank you to the people who worked so hard to share our message. Who volunteered in what felt like an endless campaign.
But most importantly thank you to the many people who gave us their vote, who trusted us to continue with leading New Zealand’s recovery. And to those amongst you who may not have supported Labour before – and the results tell me there were a few of you – to you I say thank you.
She added, ‘We will not take your support for granted. And I can promise you we will be a party that governs for every New Zealander.’
Judith Collins of the opposition Nationalist Party congratulated Ardern on the win, saying, ‘To Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who I have phoned, congratulations on your result. Which has been an outstanding result.’
While Collins congratulated Ardern on her win, she criticised the Labour Party’s handling of the country’s finances in light of the ongoing pandemic, saying that they needed to ‘do better’.
According to reports, this election saw a record number of people cast early ballots. It’s thought Ardern bagged almost 50% of the votes.
Prior to her win, Ardern pledged $50 million to fund research alternatives for single-use plastic items without current reusable substitutes, and hopes to phase out the use of single-use plastics in just over four years time.
At the time of announcing these plans last month, she said, ‘Getting rid of plastics is one of the main topics children write to me about, so this policy is about ensuring we uphold our clean green image, reduce waste in our environment and create a future our children can be proud of.’
The Labour Party is also planning on standardising kerbside recycling throughout the country.
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Topics: News, Election, Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand, Now, Politics, World News
