(Reuters) – Support for New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern rose during July, a poll showed on Thursday, keeping her Labour party on track to win a general election in September.
The 1 NEWS Colmar Brunton Poll showed Labour’s popularity at 53%, a rise of 3 percentage points from late June. If repeated in the elections, that would allow the party to govern on its own rather than in coalition.
The opposition National party lost 6 percentage points to 32%, after a series of scandals and a change of leader.
Support for incoming Nationals chief Judith Collins rose to 20% on a preferred prime minister basis, far higher than previous party leaders, but still well behind Ardern, whose popularity was steady at 54%.
A Nationals lawmaker resigned this month after being accused of sending a sexually explicit image to a young woman, while another resigned after admitting to leaking the names of coronavirus patients to media.
A Newshub-Reid Research Poll released on Sunday showed Labour popularity rose to 60.9%, its highest in the poll’s history.
(Reporting by Melanie Burton; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
