Malé, Maldives — The President of Maldives, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih congratulates the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern for winning the elections.
On Saturday, the PM won her second term as a Prime Minister, after her voters rewarded her for a decisive response to COVID-19.
President Solih congratulated PM Ardern via Twitter for her victory while saying that “despite the geographical distance between our countries, NZ is a close friend and partner to Maldives”.
Congratulations to New Zealand PM @jacindaardern on being elected to a second term of office. Despite the geographical distance between our countries, NZ is a close friend and partner to Maldives and we will continue working with your government on issues of mutual importance.
— Ibrahim Mohamed Solih (@ibusolih) October 17, 2020
He further continued to say that he hopes that the New Zealand government will continue working with the Maldives “on issues of mutual importance.”
PM Ardern took the lead in elections by achieving 49 percent of the votes compared to the opposition party, who got 27 percent. Ardern’s party, Labour has also achieved 64 of the 120 seats in the country’s unicameral parliament. This is the highest amount of seats any party in the New Zealand managed to achieve since the country adopted a proportional voting system in 1996.
During her victory speech in Aukland, PM Ardern stated that she is gonna build an evonomy that will benifit everyone. She also said that she will create jobs, train people, protect the environment and address climate challenges and social inequalities as well.
Ardern further stated that this was an unusual election at an unusual time, however, she mentioned that she will not take her new supporters for granted. She said that she will govern for all New Zealanders.
“We are living in an increasingly polarised world, a place where, more and more, people have lost the ability to see one another’s point of view. I think in this election, New Zealanders have shown that this is not who we are,” Ardern said.
If Ardern’s party wins more than half of the 120 seats in the country’s parliament, she will be able to form the first single-party government in decades.
