Wellington: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Thursday that she is going to step down and there will be a general election in the country in October. With tears in her eyes, Ardern told reporters in Napier that February 7 would be her last day as prime minister.
He said, “The sixth year of my tenure is going to start and every year I have given my best”. She announced that New Zealand’s next general election would be held on 14 October and that she would continue to serve as MP until then. It is not yet clear who will hold the prime minister’s post till the elections.
Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson has announced that he will not run for the leadership of the Labor Party. Ardern described her position as privileged but challenging. He said that to play this role one should always be prepared for unexpected things.
“I am not leaving this post because it is full of challenges. Had it been so, I would have quit the post two months after becoming the Prime Minister. I am leaving this position because with the privileges it brings comes many responsibilities … The responsibility of knowing when you are the right person to lead and when you are not. I know what this position requires and I know I don’t have the passion now. That’s the real thing.”
Ardern’s moderate Labor Party won a historic victory in the election two years ago but the most recent election saw her party decimated by her conservative rivals. Ardern was praised worldwide for the way she took steps to deal with the global pandemic. However, due to the restrictions being very strict, many times he also had to face criticism within the country.
Ardern announced in December that a ‘Royal Commission of Inquiry’ Will look into whether the government took the right decisions to deal with COVID-19 and how to be better prepared to deal with future pandemics. Its report has not come yet. In March 2019, a white gunman attacked two mosques in Christchurch in New Zealand and 51 people were killed in this attack, it was a major incident, but after that, the way Ardern supported the affected and the Muslim community of New Zealand. He was widely appreciated for this.
