Source: Radio New Zealand
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is expected to announce when this year’s election will be held tomorrow.
The first National Party caucus of the year gets underway on Tuesday afternoon in Christchurch, where Luxon is expected to announce the date of the election at the end of the retreat on Wednesday.
“It’s a chance to bring our team together and align on the year ahead,” Luxon told Morning Report on Tuesday.
While Luxon was tight-lipped over who was speaking at the event, he said he would be announcing the election date.
“I will announce the election date, and that’s just because that’s been a strong convention in New Zealand, I think it gives everybody clarity,” he said.
“Once announced, we get back to the job of getting on with the show and getting the country sorted.”
If announced at the National Party’s annual retreat, it would continue the tradition in recent years of setting a date at the start of the political year.
The decision of when to hold the election is up to the prime minister, who can pick any date at any time, as long as it’s called before the end of the current three-year parliamentary term.
The last possible legal date for this year’s election to be held is 19 December.
Several pundits are picking the election to be called for after the American mid-terms set for 3 November, which will be a key indicator for how US President Donald Trump’s remaining two years in office will fare.
Saturday, 7 November has been mentioned most frequently as a likely date.
Every general election for the past 30 years, since the introduction of MMP in 1996, has been sometime between September and November, except for one.
It comes after Luxon delivered his State of the Nation speech, hosted by the Auckland Business Chamber, on Monday.
There were also no policy announcements during the speech, though Luxon repeated National’s pledge to raise the default KiwiSaver contribution rate if re-elected.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
