By the time of writing this article, three weeks have passed after the special votes count and six weeks since the elections completed but the negotiations between three prospective partners to form the new government seem never ending. This is what one should expect to happen if you don’t give a clear mandate to one party or two parties coalition. A fractured mandate is never good for a country and its people both since a much valuable time and energy is wasted on unproductive issues. This is what we are witnessing today in New Zealand, as leaders of National Party, ACT Party and the New Zealand First Party have met a countless number of times in past three weeks without reaching to an all-acceptable agreement.
To begin with, it took more than a week for the leaders of all three parties to meet in person for a one-on-one discussion. Then started the series of meetings here and there without reaching to an agreement to form the new government. This is certainly very frustrating for the voters (though they are the one to be blamed for this situation), businesses and for the overall administration. There would be hardly any example in the whole world where a government couldn’t be formed for so many weeks after the elections. Our politicians shouldn’t forget that entire world is watching this drama going in New Zealand and its only giving a dent to our image internationally. Though it was understandable that three political parties coming together after fighting in election against each other will have issues to resolve but that should have not taken this long. New Zealand First party and its leader have a history of using bullying tactics and holding its opposition to ransom and try extracting the maximum. Its no surprise that all the delay is happening due to this reason only since National Party and ACT Party are natural allies and the two would have reached to an agreement by now. The latest reports coming are that the ministerial portfolios have been finalised, but the post of Deputy Prime Minister is the bone of contention.
Though normally ethics and morals are rare commodity in politics but ethically speaking, since ACT Party is the second largest Party of the three, so they have the rightful claim to this position. This was openly disclosed by ACT leader David Seymour a couple of days ago and that actually exposed the reason of delay happening in forming the new agreement. No one should have a misconception about New Zealand politicians that they are any better than their counterparts in rest of the world. They are also ordinary mortals with lots of aspirations, personal ambitions, and greed for power like any politician in the world. If this was not the case and our leaders would have put the interest of country and its people first than forming of government would have not taken this long. We all are aware of the current world situation in wake of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and now Israel-Hamas conflict, apart from very volatile economic scenario in most parts of the world. In this situation New Zealand needs a formidable voice that can safeguard country’s interest and have a clear stand on international situations.
New Zealanders can only hope that this political uncertainty ends soon, and the new government starts functioning and solve problems that people are facing on daily basis. Hope the good sense prevails in minds of our political leaders and they reach an agreement soon without further delay. -Yugal Parashar