JACINDA ARDERN WILL CONTINUE AS PRIME MINISTER
To no one’s surprise, Jacinda has won a second term as New Zealand’s Prime Minister, with about 49% of the vote. Her percentage is slightly shy of a majority; nevertheless her Labour Party will have a majority of the 120 seats in Parliament and they are not obligated to work in coalition with any other party. This is the first time in the history of the MMP system that any party has obtained an absolute majority.
Tonight’s other big election night news is Chloë Swarbrick, predicted to come in 3rd (after the Labour and National candidates) in the Central Auckland district. Chloë in fact dominated the district race for the whole evening, and came out on top by about 500 votes (out of about 26,000). This district was once a Labour stronghold, but in 2008 it was won by a moderate National candidate who held onto it for 12 years until retiring this year. The conventional wisdom was, of course, that a vote for Chloë would be a wasted vote, and would help National win the seat again — but that is not what happened.
Chloë — everyone uses her first name — ran an activist, community-based campaign. Her win can be credited to the grassroots activism that she was able to engage and motivate. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of young people who may have been considered “unlikely” voters were excited by her style and rhetoric. She is 26 years old, quick thinking and smart, and she is bold in her aspirations. Green co-leader James Shaw tells the story that both he and his predecessor had conducted extensive campaigns to get the national accident insurance (ACC) fund to divest from fossil fuels, without results. Then, according to James, “Chloë [who was already in Parliament] looked at them sideways” and they caved. Her persuasive skills are already legendary; she is devoted, passionate and tireless. And she is a good person who cares about those who are generally marginalized: LGBTQ, renters, the poor, people of color.
I need to be clear here that the NZ/Aotearoa Greens are very different from the US Greens, who seem to be largely discredited since Trump’s 2016 “election”. NZ Greens are the party pushing for genuine action on poverty, legalization of cannabis, and for real sustainability. They will have 10 seats in the new Parliament — 9 proportionally allocated ones plus the Central Auckland one; Labour will have 64. Labour’s tepid policies on these issues need a push from the Greens, in my view. Although Labour is not required to work with the Greens, they are seen by many as political allies and agreements are still a real possibility on some issues.
Either way, I look forward to being represented by Chloë Swarbrick in the New Zealand Parliament.
Sunday, Oct 18, 2020 · 5:47:28 AM +00:00
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senorjoel
People have expressed some curiosity about Chloë in their responses to this article. Here is a reasonably good article in the NZ Herald (not a paper that I read, but sometimes their articles are all right).
At this point, special votes are still being counted (or discounted, if they can’t be authenticated) in the overall election. While Labour could govern alone with their 64 seats (out of 120), they may be inspired to go for a larger mandate with a broader coalition — meaning the Greens (10 seats). It is unclear how much influence Green policies would really have in such a government.
The other thing that has not yet been announced is the outcomes of 2 non-binding referendums, one on end of life choice and the other — heavily pushed by the Greens — on legalizing recreational cannabis with strict regulation. Results are expected on Nov. 6, and they are non-binding, which means Labour in theory could ignore them completely. They have said they would not do that, but the cannabis referendum was not polling well just before the election.
Watch this space for additional updates.