WELLINGTON (NEW ZEALAND) – New Zealand’s ruling Labour Party led by Jacinda Ardern remains in an assertive position two days before a general election, on Thursday.
The closely watched 1News-Colmar Brunton poll showed support for Ardern’s party came down to 1 percentage point to 46%. However, it still maintained a 15-point lead over its main opposition National Party, which dropped to 31%.
This means Labour would have 59 seats in parliament, which indicates it would need 61 seats to form a government on its own.
Ardern moved swiftly to have the country locked dowm, and the measures helped virtually remove the new coronavirus from the community.
Labour’s likely coalition partner, the Green Party, came back stronger to its highest level since 2017 with a support of 8%, fetching it 11 seats.
New Zealand heads to the polls on Saturday, and more than 1.4 million people have already voted in advance voting.
Ardern’s popularity as the preferred prime minister has jumped to 55%, while National’s tough-talking conservative leader Judith Collins was behind at 20%, the polls showed.
In addition to her response towards the pandemic, Ardern, 40, has won support for how she reacted to an attack by a white supremacist on two mosques and a fatal volcanic eruption last year.