Election 2023: a minor (party) flirtation

Jacinda Ardern on election night in 2020: no three-peat? (Image: BusinessDesk)

Tue, 22 Nov 2022

To be confident of winning a general election under MMP, the lead party really needs 40% support or more.That’s why the National party, which gained 44.4% of the vote in the 2017 election, spent the next three years complaining it had been robbed by Labour, which formed a government with just 36.9% support.That’s also why, on election night 2017, Jacinda Ardern didn’t behave as if she’d won.Indeed, had that election been fought between Bill English as National leader and Andrew Little at the helm for Labour, English woul...

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