Citing Covid-19 Outbreak In Auckland, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern Announces Postponement Of National Elections 

Citing the latest coronavirus outbreak in its largest city of Auckland, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced that the national election will be delayed by a month.

After holding wide-ranging consultation with every political party in parliament, as well as the country’s electoral commission, Ardern said that it has been decided to reschedule the general election from 19 September to 17 October. Advance voting however would open on 3 October.

The opposition parties in the country too had called for the election to be moved, with their leaders saying it wasn’t “just and fair” to hold an election while an outbreak was underway

New Zealand had earned widespread praise for a record 102 days of no new transmissions of novel coronavirus and touted as the model on how to beat the virus with the strictest regulations in the world.

The World Health Organization has often held New Zealand up as the model for other countries to follow crediting the speed of its actions. It was one of the few in the world which had returned to normal life with full sports stadiums and open nightclubs but it always maintained its strict border controls.

Unlike other nations, New Zealand decided to embark on a strategy of total elimination of coronavirus. It went 102 days without any known local transmission of the virus. That however ended on Aug 11 as PM Ardern announced four new cases of Covid-19, all from one Auckland household with still unknown source of infection.

On Aug 14, Ardern announced that Auckland, home to about 1.5 million people, will be put in a lockdown with level 3 restrictions in place .

On Sunday (Aug 16) health authorities reported 69 active cases of Covid-19 including 49 linked to the Auckland Cluster. Today (Aug 16), nine news cases of Covid-19 were reported, bringing the total number of cases related to the Auckland cluster to 58.

New Zealand Parliament is set to reconvene today and will be dissolved on 6 September.