Daily US Times: Millions of voters in New Zealand are heading to the polls in the country’s general elections and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern eyes on second term.
The election was originally due to be in September but was postponed by a month after a renewed Covid-19 outbreak.
Opinion polls suggest Jacinda Ardern on course to win a second term, boosted by her successful handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
But the big question now is whether the Prime Minister will win a parliamentary majority, which would be unprecedented.
No party has ever won an outright majority in the country since it introduced a parliamentary system known as Mixed Member Proportional representation (MMP) in 1996.
Voting opened at 09:00 local time (20:00 GMT Friday) and will end at 19:00.
More than a million voters have already voted in early polling which opened up on 3 October.
Alongside the general election vote, New Zealanders are also being asked to vote in two referendums.
Most political analysts say that Ms Ardern is on track to win a second term, and some opinion polls also suggest there is even the possibility of her winning an outright majority.
Professor Jennifer Curtin of the University of Auckland says winning an outright majority is a ”long shot’ adding that there have been similar situations in the past where one leader was tipped to win a majority, but it did not come to pass.
She said: “When John Key was leader, opinion polls put his chances at 50% of the vote… but on the day it didn’t work out.”
Another analyst, Josh Van Veen, told while speaking with the BBC that he believed the “most likely scenario” was that Labour would need to form a government with the Green Party – one of two coalition partners that helped Labour form the government in 2017.
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