WELLINGTON (NEW ZEALAND) – New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Friday appealed to voters to give her a strong mandate and pledged a swift recovery from the pandemic crisis.
Given her handling of the crisis in a responsible way, Ardern is well placed in the vote scheduled for Saturday. Recent polls indicate that her ruling Labour Party might require support from the Greens Party to form a government.
“If you want pace and speed, give us a strong mandate,” said the 40-year-old leader in an interview with Radio New Zealand.
Her party has a comfortable double-digit lead over the major opposition centre-right National Party. The polls also hint of the devastation to the nationalist New Zealand First Party, which is the Labour’s coalition partner led by Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters.
In case Labour has a huge margin, then it will become the first party to rule alone since the nation made a transition to a mixed member proportional (MMP) system in 1996.
If there is a coalition of the Labour Party and the Greens, it would be the first left-leaning government in decades. In such a scenario there would be more taxes and an environment hostile to investment and business, warned conservative National Party leader Judith Collins.
The 61-year-old argues that she is best placed to handle the post-pandemic financial situation.
The duo reached out to undecided voters, who comprise 14%.
While normalcy has been restored in the country, its tourism sector is in a shambles and economists are warning of a lasting recession.
In Q-2, the economy slumped 12.2%, the worst level since the Great Depression and debt is expected to soar to 56%.
Ardern has promised to hike taxes for top earners while Collins pledged short-term tax reductions.
