Premier, Seizing on Lead in Polls, Calls Early Vote
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NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark called a snap election for July 27, betting on a commanding lead in polls and declaring a gridlocked Parliament “farcical.”
The polls indicate that Clark’s coalition would win a majority of the 120 seats in the single-chamber Parliament, although the last time an early election was called, in 1984, the government was dumped at the polls.
Clark said that it was time to “clear the air” and that Parliament had become farcical after constant opposition attacks on the junior party in her minority coalition, the left-wing Alliance, which split into two factions in April.
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