New Zealand held a General Election on Saturday 17 October 2020, with advance voting beginning two weeks earlier, on 3 October. Originally planned for 19 September, the election was postponed due to Covid-19.
New Zealand: 2020 general election (278 KB, PDF)
The election was commonly dubbed the “Covid election”, with the coronavirus pandemic the main issue for voters throughout the campaign. Jacinda Ardern, the incumbent Prime Minister from the Labour Party, had been widely praised for her handling of the pandemic and the “hard and early” plan introduced by her Government in the early stages. She led in the polls throughout the campaign.
Preliminary results from the election show Ms Ardern won a landslide victory, securing 49.1 per cent of the votes and a projected 64 seats in the new (53rd) Parliament: a rare outright parliamentary majority.
The final tally will be revealed on 6 November, once overseas and special votes have been counted.
As well as electing Members of Parliament, New Zealand’s electorate voted on two referendums: one to decriminalise the recreational use of marijuana; the other to allow some terminally ill people to request assisted dying.
New Zealand: 2020 general election (278 KB, PDF)
The Government has created a new visa for people from Hong Kong with British National (Overseas) status. The five year visa will enable BN(O)s and their dependent family members to live, work and study in the UK, and give them a route to permanent settlement and British citizenship. It launches on 31 January.
Three-quarters of voters in Great Britain will be able to vote in more than one election.
In March 2021, the UK Government published its Global Britain in a competitive age: Integrated review of security, development and foreign policy (hereafter “review”).
