The yearbook revelation: Which student was voted most likely to be PM

Labour leader Jacinda Ardern as a student at Morrinsville College. Photo / TVNZ

Nearly 20 years ago a high school yearbook gave a vital clue that a senior student held a political ambition now potentially days away from being realised.

The Morrinsville College 1998 yearbook lists a poll of students marking best-known traits or accomplishments of the school leavers.

Categories included best-looking, friendliest, happiest, sportiest, funniest, loudest, most likely to succeed and first to become a millionaire.

There was also a category for the student most likely to become Prime Minister - and newly promoted Labour Party leader Jacinda Ardern won the vote hands down 19 years ago.

Labour leader Jacinda Ardern as a student at Morrinsville College. Photo / TVNZ

Two decades later the yearbook has resurfaced and the seemingly prophetic poll is close to being proved correct.

Asked if she was trying to prove her former school mates right, Ardern said the poll reflected her interest in politics as a teen.

"The only reason I got voted for that was because I was the only one who cared about politics at school and so there's this natural assumption somehow that was where I was going to end up," she told Herald Focus.

And although she was politically active she believed her destiny was upholding the law rather than making it.

"I thought I was going to be a policewoman," Ardern revealed.

One woman on Facebook described the Labour leader as a formidable opponent when it came to school speeches.

"Certainly Jacinda Ardern was one I didn't want to battle with when speeches rolled around!" posted former schoolmate Amy King.