Credit: Fiona Goodall/Getty Images

LONDON, Oct 20 2023 (IPS) – It’s a rapid reversal for New Zealand’s Labour Party, in power for six years. At the in 2020 it won an outright majority, the first party to do so under the current voting system. But three years on, it’s finished a distant second in the election held on 14 October. The result speaks to a broader pattern seen amid economic strife in many countries – of intense political volatility and the rejection of incumbents.

Jacindamania fades

Former Labour leader Jacinda Ardern captured the public imagination when she took the helm of her party in August 2017. Labour had been floundering bu…