New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern delayed its election by four weeks till October 17 after a renewed case of coronavirus outbreak hampered the campaigning.
New Zealand, whose election date were set for 19th September, is now battling with a return of COVID-19, which forced the country’s largest city, Auckland into lockdown last week and ended 102 days without community transmission.
Ardern said that, “This decision gives all parties time over the next nine weeks to campaign and the Electoral Commission enough time to ensure an election can go ahead,”.
The centre-left leader came under the pressure to change the date after all the parties suspended their campaigns in the wake of last week’s corona outbreak, said the source of which remains unknown.
Ardern acknowledged that there was widespread anxiety prevailing in the community over the virus return, which was first detected in family of four members in Auckland, last Tuesday.
The Auckland cluster had grown to so far 49 confirmed cases by Sunday and Ardern said that, she had spent the weekend consulting with party leaders and the Electoral Commission over the vote’s date.
The change meant that all parties would be campaigning under the same conditions and the date will not be moved further from 17th,October regardless of the situation.”I have absolutely no intention at all to change from this point,” she said.
With a record of personal popularity rating, Ardern is ranking high in the polls of about 60 percent because of her leadership during the pandemic situations like Christchurch mosque attacks, last year and the White Island volcanic eruption.
The Labour Party of Ardern is on track to win the office in its own right, without the coalition partners of minority party, the Greens and New Zealand First (NZF) as it needed during its first term.
