New Zealand election: Jacinda Ardern's Labour Party scores landslide win.
She said, "We will not take your support for granted."
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has won a landslide victory in the country's general election.
With all votes tallied, Ms Ardern's centre-left Labour Party won 49.1%, bringing a projected 64 seats and a rare outright parliamentary majority.
The opposition centre-right National Party won 26.8% in Saturday's poll - just 35 seats in the 120-seat assembly.
The poll was originally to be held in September but was postponed by a month after a renewed Covid-19 outbreak.
Ahead of Saturday's vote, more than a million people cast ballots in early polling, which opened on 3 October.
New Zealanders were also asked to vote in two referendums alongside the general election.
Ms Ardern, 40, told her supporters after the victory: "New Zealand has shown the Labour Party its greatest support in almost 50 years. We will not take your support for granted. And I can promise you we will be a party that governs for every New Zealander."
National Party (NAT) leader Judith Collins congratulated Ms Ardern and promised her party would be a "robust opposition".
"Three years will be gone in the blink of an eye," she said, referring to the next scheduled election. "We will be back."
No party had managed to win an outright majority in New Zealand since it introduced a voting system known as Mixed Member Proportional representation (MMP) in 1996.
Ms Ardern, who dubbed the poll "the Covid election", pledged to instil more climate-friendly policies, boost funding for disadvantaged schools and raise income taxes on top earners.
Aside from choosing their preferred candidate and party, New Zealanders were also asked to vote in two referendums: the end of life choice on euthanasia and cannabis legalisation.
The first aims to give terminally ill people the option of requesting assisted dying. This is a binding vote, which means it will be enacted if more than 50% vote "yes".
The second is over whether the recreational use of cannabis should become legal.
This however, is not binding - which means even if a majority of people vote "yes" - cannabis might not become legal straight away. It would still be up to the incoming government to introduce a bill to legalise this.
Preliminary results for both referendums will be announced on 30 October.
New Zealand has a general election every three years. Under its MMP system, voters are asked to vote twice - for their preferred party and for their electorate, or constituency, MP.
A party must receive more than 5% of the party vote or win an electorate seat to enter parliament, although there are guarantees for Maori candidates.
Parties usually have to work together, resulting in coalition governments.
In 2017, the National Party won the most seats, but could not form a government and Labour entered into a coalition with the Greens and New Zealand First, a nationalist party.
[News taken from BBC]
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