A party representing New Zealand’s indigenous Maori may hold the key to power in elections today that could also end the rule of one of the world’s longest-serving elected women leaders.
Polls have shown a center-right coalition is consistently ahead of New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark’s Labour government, though both sides were cautious yesterday, the last day of campaigning.
The country’s foreign affairs and trade policies are unlikely to change much no matter which side wins — including the long-standing ban on nuclear-powered ships entering New Zealand ports that has rankled military ally Washington.
The nearly two-months-long campaign was largely fought on domestic issues, though the global financial crisis loomed large, worsening a recession and forcing both main parties to pare back promises of big tax cuts.
Conservative National Party leader John Key, a multimillionaire former foreign currency trader, has campaigned on a platform of change and says he can better steer the country though the economic troubles.
Clark argues that the troubled economic times mean voters should stick with the government they know.
National and Labour are racing to get a majority in the 123-seat parliament, but the country’s complex proportional voting system means there are multiple small parties that make the contest volatile.
Both sides have wooed smaller allies to their side — Greens and Progressives to Labour and conservative parties to National.
The only unaligned group is the Maori Party, likely to win at least four seats.
National’s coalition is close to having a majority, the last opinion polls of the campaign indicated, but if Labour claws back late ground the Maori party may be able to play kingmaker.
“We’ll decide totally based on the relationship and also what we are able to advance for our people,” Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia said of who her group would support after the vote.
Maori make up 15 percent of New Zealand’s people but are among the poorest, worst housed, least healthy and suffer higher unemployment and crime rates than most other citizens.
They blame their conditions on European colonization that saw their lands seized and many tribes impoverished.
In an effort to woo the Maori Party, Clark has also pledged to consider amending its law that nationalized the country’s shoreline — an area Maori claim they had traditionally owned but was “stolen” by Labour’s new law passed in 2004.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in