New Zealand’s prime minister won a second term in office.
Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Party won 49% of the vote, according to preliminary results. The next highest vote share was earned by the National Party, which took 27% of the vote.
With its victory, the Labour Party will control the majority of seats in Parliament. No party has accomplished such a feat since the nation’s current political system was established in 1996. Parties in New Zealand have typically had to form coalitions in order to get things accomplished.
The Green Party, Labour’s current coalition partner, garnered 8% of the vote.
Ardern has received a fair amount of international attention in recent months over her response to the coronavirus pandemic. New Zealand was one of the first nations to close its borders, and in March, Ardern announced a nationwide lockdown when the country still only had 102 cases.
In total, New Zealand has experienced just fewer than 1,900 “confirmed and probable” cases of the coronavirus. Twenty-five people have died.
At the beginning of 2020, polls showed that the race might end up tighter, but the pandemic appeared to turn things around.
