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New Zealand's Ardern appears headed for big win and 2nd term

With half of the vote counted, New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is poised for re-election and her Labour Party could govern alone. Preliminary results have begun rolling out as officials count the votes in Saturday's general election.

Published October 17,2020
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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern appears headed for a landslide win and a second term in office during early vote counting in New Zealand's election.

With about one-third of votes counted on Saturday, Ardern's liberal Labour Party had nearly double the amount of votes than its main challenger, the conservative National Party.

One question will be whether Labour can win an outright majority in Parliament, something that hasn't happened since New Zealand implemented a proportional voting system 24 years ago. Typically, parties must form alliances to govern, but this time there's a chance Ardern and Labour will be able to go it alone.