Jacinda Ardern has announced that the election will be delayed until 17 October.
“This date I think will give certainty,” she said, adding that she believes no further change of date should be made.
“Ultimately I do need to provide certainty, a sense of fairness and a sense of comfort to voters that this will be a safe election,” she said.
The prime minister said the change of date was her decision, and that even had she not consulted other political leaders this is still the outcome she would have arrived at.
It comes after the COVID-19 outbreak in Auckland prompted calls to postpone the election due to the suspension of political campaigning.
Ardern said there wasn’t any suggestion that New Zealand will be in elevated COVID alert levels on 19 September, when the general election was initially scheduled to take place.
However, the prime minister said pushing the election out meant disruption was less likely.
The dissolution of Parliament will now be Sunday 6 October.
