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New Zealand election: ‘I’m Jacinda Ardern, and I hope that I can bring it home’

The 37-year-old opposition leader has been mobbed at shopping malls and earned comparisons to Canada’s Justin Trudeau and France’s Emmanuel Macron

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Leader of the Labour Party Jacinda Ardern speaks at a Labour Party rally in Hamilton. Photo: AFP

New Zealand’s charismatic opposition leader Jacinda Ardern rallied support Sunday for the final week of a roller coaster election campaign that has her centre-left Labour Party within sight of an unlikely victory.

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Labour had been heading for disaster at the September 23 polls until Ardern took over last month and sparked a surge in support that local media dubbed “Jacindamania”.

The 37-year-old has been mobbed at shopping malls and earned comparisons to Canada’s Justin Trudeau and France’s Emmanuel Macron from pundits such as former prime minister Helen Clark.

Her rise has wrong-footed Prime Minister Bill English’s conservative National Party, which had been cruising to a record-equalling fourth term.

English has dismissed Ardern’s appeal as “stardust”, focusing instead on National’s strong record guiding New Zealand through the global financial crisis and a deadly Christchurch earthquake in 2011.

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Ardern herself admits she is surprised at the public’s response to a self-described “policy nerd” who never envisioned herself running for prime minister.

“Jacindamania” has largely been ignored by Ardern herself; she insists she has her eye squarely on the prize.

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