Wellington, Oct 18 (AFP/APP):New Zealand’s opposition said Sunday Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s landslide election win means she no longer has any excuses for failing to deliver on her visionary promises. Ardern won a historic outright majority in Saturday’s poll — the first since New Zealand adopted proportional voting in 1996 — meaning she can implement policies without support from minor parties. The charismatic leader was criticised during her first term for not accomplishing key promises such as protecting the environment and reducing child poverty. Opposition leader Judith Collins said Ardern’s election success meant she could no longer blame coalition partners for frustrating her progressive agenda because she now had a free hand to do as she pleased. “The government has got the mandate to do all the things that they’ve promised to do, so they can’t blame anyone else for not delivering,” she told reporters. Campaigning during the vote centred on the government’s successful coronavirus response, with Ardern dubbing it the “Covid election”, and crisis management has defined the centre-left leader’s first term. In addition to the pandemic, she responded with compassion and decisive policy action after the March 2019 Christchurch mosques attack, when a white supremacist gunman killed 51 … Continue reading New Zealand opposition dares victorious Ardern to deliver