Minor parties could hold key to New Zealand election

The National party’s Christopher Luxon is leading Labour’s Chris Hipkins in the race to become New Zealand’s next prime minister, but any victory could depend on the support of smaller right-wing and populist parties. Less than a year after Jacinda Ardern, the darling of the international community, passed the leadership to Hipkins, New Zealand’s left-leaning Labour party is facing an election where many of its trademark policies – from green farming to Maori co-governance – could be rolled back if the centre-right Nationals take power on October 14 as the opinion polls suggest. Responding to Hipkins’s reference to racist campaigning, Luxon told Hipkins he was willing to “make the call” to work with New Zealand First if it meant “stopping you, Te Pati Maori and the Greens coming to power”. The situation prompted 30 Maori leaders to write an open letter two weeks before the election stating: “Racism, in any form, should have no place in our elections.” Christchurch Mosque shooting recommendations shelved Aliya Danzeisen, the national coordinator of the Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand told Al Jazeera that recent attacks during the election “underscore” why recommendations from New Zealand’s Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch Mosque attacks “should have been implemented three years ago”.