'Covid election': PM Jacinda Ardern's Labour Party set to sweep polls in New Zealand
Second term
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's Labour Party has won 50.1 per cent of the votes so far with Judith Collins opposition National Party trailing far behind with 26.2 per cent, New Zealand's Electoral Commission said on Saturday.
Forty per cent of the ballot has so far been counted in the elections with Ardern's Labour Party on track to win 66 of the 120 seats in the country's Parliament. No party has won an absolute majority in Parliament since 1996 after the country adopted the proportional voting system.
The National Party is on track to win 33 seats which would be its worst performance in nearly 20 years.
Poll experts say "Jacinda-mania" has swept the country after the New Zealand prime minister's government made rapid strides in controlling the coronavirus pandemic even as it continued to spread across the world including in neighbouring Australia.
Ardern had dubbed the polls the "the Covid election". The New Zealand First Party has won 2.4 per cent of the votes counted so far and the Ardern's coalition partner Green Party getting 8 per cent.
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