Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has decided to delay the election until October 17. Announcing the decision this morning, Ardern said the re-emergence of Covid-19 in the community was a cause for concern during the election period.
COMMENT:
Full marks to Jacinda Ardern for making the most sensible decision today in delaying the election by a month.
To have done anything else would have carried risks, particularly if she had stuck with September 19.
Having decisively managed both Covid-19 phases in New Zealand by taking what shecalled "a precautionary approach", she would have had little credibility in ploughing on with the original plan when a third of the country is in alert level 3.
To have gone ahead would have looked self-serving – and kept her on the defensive for the next couple of weeks.
If she had taken the last option available without having to change the law, a November 21 election, she would have been accused of bowing to pressure from coalition partner New Zealand First.
There was no chance of New Zealand First using the nuclear option of withdrawing support from the Government because that almost certainly would have triggered the election Winston Peters did not want.
And he could not have formed an alternative Government with other parties without being kicked further into oblivion than currently looks likely.
Ardern explained her decision well. No reasonable person could complain, not voters, not candidates and not political parties.
Not only did she delay the election in the face of uncertainty over the Covid-19 outbreak, but she also went the extra step few anticipated in delaying the dissolution of Parliament.
Jacinda Ardern on her way to today's press conference, accompanied by her chief press secretary, Andrew Campbell. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The delay in the dissolution means that Parliament will resume tomorrow, Question Time can be held and ministerial statements and debates can be conducted.
The usual agenda will not be picked up, bills won't be debated and the sitting days will be limited to Tuesday and Wednesday, cutting out Thursday. But Parliament will resume its function as a place of scrutiny for the Government, which is only fitting.
The extra time will also give the Electoral Commission more time to prepare for an election in an uncertain future, and that has to be a sensible thing.
It will give the Government time to focus on the health response to the Covid outbreak in Auckland. And it will give parties time to adjust their campaigns to a different style and focus of campaigning under Covid.
It was Ardern's first and only delay, she said emphatically. Any future delays will be in the hands of the Electoral Commission.
Ardern was correct in describing her decision as a balanced approach and it was the right one.
