New Zealand Prime Minister John Key yesterday announced that general elections would held in November — an unusually lengthy heads-up he said was designed to avoid any distractions during the Rugby World Cup.
The rugby-obsessed nation was due to vote in elections sometime this year, and Key’s center-right National-led government is widely expected to comfortably win a second three-year term whenever they are held.
The Rugby World Cup will be held from Sept. 9 to Oct. 23 at various venues around the country.
Key named Nov. 26 as the election date — a little more than a month after the tournament final.
“This gives the public clarity,” Key told reporters.
“The Rugby World Cup is a huge opportunity for New Zealand, the biggest event it has ever staged, and we can showcase the country to billions of viewers. I don’t want to undermine that by playing politics with the election date,” he said.
New Zealand governments typically delay the announcement of elections to keep political rivals guessing and to give themselves a head start in campaigning.
Labour Party leader Phil Goff said his party would be ready for the campaign, though its poll ratings have been low since it was swept from power in 2008 after three straight terms.
“Labour will campaign on the issues that are affecting New Zealanders most,” Goff said.
“We know that people are worried about the soaring cost of living with prices rising much faster than wages — that will be a key issue this election,” he said.
Key said he thought the early announcement unprecedented. He said his National Party, which governs in a center-right coalition with the ACT, United Future and Maori Parties, would stand on its record of responsible economic management.
Key has unprecedented popularity since he became prime minister in the 2008 election. His personal popularity has also lifted his government to consistently high poll ratings.
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
RIGHTS FEARS: A protester said Beijing would use the embassy to catch and send Hong Kongers to China, while a lawmaker said Chinese agents had threatened Britons Hundreds of demonstrators on Saturday protested at a site earmarked for Beijing’s controversial new embassy in London over human rights and security concerns. The new embassy — if approved by the British government — would be the “biggest Chinese embassy in Europe,” one lawmaker said earlier. Protester Iona Boswell, a 40-year-old social worker, said there was “no need for a mega embassy here” and that she believed it would be used to facilitate the “harassment of dissidents.” China has for several years been trying to relocate its embassy, currently in the British capital’s upmarket Marylebone district, to the sprawling historic site in the
The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world. Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. "Thanks to
‘IMPOSSIBLE’: The authors of the study, which was published in an environment journal, said that the findings appeared grim, but that honesty is necessary for change Holding long-term global warming to 2°C — the fallback target of the Paris climate accord — is now “impossible,” according to a new analysis published by leading scientists. Led by renowned climatologist James Hansen, the paper appears in the journal Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development and concludes that Earth’s climate is more sensitive to rising greenhouse gas emissions than previously thought. Compounding the crisis, Hansen and colleagues argued, is a recent decline in sunlight-blocking aerosol pollution from the shipping industry, which had been mitigating some of the warming. An ambitious climate change scenario outlined by the UN’s climate
RSS