New Zealand PM heads for landslide win

Helen Clark, once so unpopular New Zealand's Labour Party nearly dumped her as leader, looks certain to be re-elected for a second term as Prime Minister after calling a snap general election yesterday.

The country will go to the polls on 27 July, four months earlier than expected. Ms Clark said governing had become difficult because of the break-up into two factions of Labour's junior coalition partner, the left-wing Alliance. Cynics suggested the decision had more to do with her party's commanding lead in the opinion polls.

Ms Clark, who ousted Jenny Shipley to become the country's second consecutive female Prime Minister, has charmed New Zealanders since taking office in November 1999. Once seen as cerebral and aloof, she is widely admired for her decisiveness, down-to-earth style and personable manner. One commentator recently described her as "quite unnecessarily good at her job".

An average of recent polls puts Labour support at 53 per cent, with the main right-wing National Party – which governed for most of the Nineties – languishing at 28 per cent. The figures suggest a landslide victory for Labour, which would be the first party to rule alone since proportional representation started in 1996.

Ms Clark, who enjoys the highest personal ratings of a serving Prime Minister for nearly 20 years, has bolstered New Zealand's reputation as a bastion of sexual equality.

Women occupy virtually all the top political and constitutional posts, including that of Governor General (Dame Silvia Cartwright), Attorney General (Margaret Wilson) and Chief Justice (Dame Sian Elias). The chief executive of the biggest corporation, Telecom, is a woman, as are seven out of 20 cabinet ministers.

Ms Clark told The Independent she had, as a matter of policy, promoted talented women to positions of influence and power. "I chair the honours and appointments committee in Cabinet, and people are well aware that if they serve up lists of men only, they will be told to go away and think again," she said.

In office, Ms Clark – known as Red Helen in her youth – has proved a pragmatic politician. Apart from raising taxes for high earners to placate the Alliance, she has been careful not to alienate Middle New Zealand. She has cut the defence budget and modestly increased spending on education and health.

Her popularity is attributed to tone rather than policies. Voters like her direct, informal style. She laughed off criticism by the British press corps of her decision to wear trousers at a state dinner for the Queen this year. She gives straight answer to questions and is extremely accessible; most journalists in Wellington know her mobile telephone number.

"She is very strong, and the electorate likes that," Colin James, a columnist with The New Zealand Herald, said. "She takes up firm positions and she tells it like it is." Ms Clark, who had to call an election by the end of the year, has also discovered a populist touch. She spent a week making a series on New Zealand for the Discovery Channel. On a visit to America in March, she was filmed at ground zero in New York with tears streaming down. A few years ago, she would not have dreamt of displaying such emotion.

The picture is not entirely rosy. Ms Clark faces industrial unrest by teachers and nurses, and police are considering whether to charge her over an art fraud in which she donated a work by a local artist to a charity auction, passing it off as hers.

If she is re-elected, the country will have had almost a decade of female leadership by the next election in 2005. The glass ceiling has seemingly been broken in New Zealand.

Ms Clark said: "I nearly broke my own head on it. It was very difficult to get established. But I don't think anyone would seriously question again whether a woman could do the job. The presence of women at the highest level is here to stay, in politics and in all areas of society."