Former New Zealand COVID-19 pandemic leader Chris Hipkins, 44, has been nominated by Labor MPs to replace Jacinda Ardern as prime minister, the party said in a statement on Friday.
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Chris Hipkins has yet to be formally appointed by his party’s leadership on Sunday before he can become his country’s 41st prime minister after Jacinda Ardern’s surprise resignation on Thursday.
The new prime minister will be responsible for leading his party in October’s general election, for which polls show he is not the favorite.
Mr Hipkins’ action was welcomed at the head of the department responsible for developing the response to the pandemic in a country that closed its borders to limit the risk of infection and only reopened them last August.
He is considered experienced with more than 14 years in parliament and last year admitted people were tired of the strict pandemic restrictions and described border closures as “difficult”.
Minister of the Interior since June, he had previously held the departments of education and public service.
Jacinda Ardern, 42, resigned on Thursday, claiming after five and a half years in power she “doesn’t have enough energy” to continue to govern. During her tenure, she faced the COVID-19 pandemic, a deadly volcanic eruption and the country’s worst-ever attack, the 2019 killing of 51 Muslim worshipers at two Christchurch mosques by a white supremacist.