What I had been writing in this column for last many weeks has finally come true and honestly, I am not surprised at all about the outcome of these elections. As I had mentioned it earlier that in these elections, there was no challenge to Jacinda’s position or her party’s come back, however hard opposition parties may try, that was the ground reality. Even regular poll surveys were giving the similar indications of public mood every time. Whatever Jacinda did in past three years’ time to win public confidence was enough to consolidate her comeback.

But what a come back it has been, smashing several old records and creating some new one. This was the biggest win for Labour Party in New Zealand in last fifty years and first in last 25 years for any political party in New Zealand to win a clear mandate to govern alone. Some very big names and the stalwarts from the opposition were blown away in Jacinda storm. The biggest factor that created the way for this historic mandate was the public confidence in Jacinda’s ability to deal with tough situations like the one after Christchurch massacre or her handling of Corona crisis. The handling of these two major incidents in the country gave her enormous exposure to make an interaction with people directly on a regular basis. People could see and feel the warmth, empathy and the connect with her. There was not a shred of any arrogance and stubbornness in her behaviour that impressed to even her critics. So, the confidence building started slowly, and it continued even till when elections announced, and things were still moving very swiftly. The results of these election are a good lesson for many old horses of New Zealand politics.

New Zealand First party will not have any representation in the parliament for the first time in many decades. Though the writing was on the wall for them, but some people still believed at least its leader to be back, one more time. Going by the popular political norms in New Zealand this election hence should be the last election for Winston Peters. The party will soon need to find a suitable young leader to lead the party in future. The National party carried on with its own issues and miseries during these elections and the performance tells it all. ‘Crusher’ Collins may have not anticipated such a crushing defeat, even in her wildest dreams. She may not be in her job for long and ideally, she herself should take the moral responsibility of the debacle and leave before she is asked to do so. I had also mentioned about this lack of support to her leadership and infightings, in my previous write ups. The party never appeared as one united unit, right through the elections. Also, people in New Zealand still do not believe in personal attacks or bitching about rival leaders. This certainly went against National Party as many National leaders broke the line several times during the campaigning. Jacinda’s campaigning on the other hand, was quite balanced and very poised and never showed any aggression even on, one on one TV debates. She only focused on making her voters understand what she plans to do for the country after her comeback.

This trust of voters in her became the reason of her and her party’s resounding victory. Half of the total voters cast their votes to her party. This, by all means, is a historic mandate and shows that people of New Zealand believe that here is a leader who has the capabilities to pull the country through, out of the biggest crisis that country in history, post Corona. Jacinda now certainly carries the very heavy weight of people’s expectations on her shoulders to put the country’s otherwise drowning economy, back on track.

-Yugal Parashar