There is still everything to play for in New Zealand’s general election

With two weeks to go before New Zealand’s general election, the contest is so close that many have stopped bothering to make predictions over who will win. And yet, despite such competition, one would be hard-pressed to call the parties’ campaigning lively.

The election is being contested by a pair of unprepossessing men named Chris: wonkish, technocratic, affably bland on the stump, they have been crisscrossing the country in a spirit of hokey conviviality. One making cheese rolls, the other dressing up as a pirate; one wedged himself into a tot’s chair to stir goo at a children’s centre, the other drove a tractor ten yards. Neither candidate has been able to capture the collective imagination during televised debates watched by the ever-decreasing segment of society who still watch terrestrial television. 

In January, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins took over from Jacinda Ardern, who just three years ago won the greatest electoral victory in the modern age, leaving her able to govern without coalition partners.