New Zealand PM Christopher Luxon calls national election for November 7

The centre-right prime minister of New Zealand has announced that elections will be held nationwide on November 7.

As he touted his government’s record on crime and the economy, Christopher Luxon made the announcement for the election on Wednesday.

Luxon claimed that his government’s inflation rate had dropped from 7% to 3% and that there were 38, 000 fewer self-reported crime victims.

The prime minister said in a statement that “the country was heading in the wrong direction” and that it has taken a lot of work over the past two years to finally turn things around.

“Our main priority will remain to deliver on our plan to fix the fundamentals and build the future so that Kiwis all over the country get more results like these,” he continued as he addressed the election later this year.

After delivering a crushing defeat to the centre-left Labour Party in the 2023 election, Luxon’s National Party and the populist New Zealand First and pro-business ACT parties formed a coalition.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Luxon, a former chief executive of Air New Zealand, ran on a platform that addressed law and order and cost-of-living issues.

Despite the slow economic conditions, his government’s record has drawn growing scrutiny. The economy of New Zealand slowed down during three of the previous six months’ ends in September, and the unemployment rate in November reached its highest level in nearly 20 years.

Despite recent polls, it appears that Chris Hipkins’ party, led by the National Party, is losing ground to Labour, despite recent projections that his party would still be able to hold onto its position of power with the aid of its coalition partners.

Every three years, elections for New Zealand’s unicameral parliament are held, but the government of the day has the authority to decide when.