Auckland: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern won a landslide victory in country’s general election on Saturday, her success leveraging battle against Covid- 19 to gain an unprecedented outright majority and the chance to implement her reform agenda.

Ardern’s centre-left Labour Party was on 49.2 percent and forecast to take around 64 seats in the 120-member parliament, with two thirds of the vote counted. No leader has achieved an absolute majority since New Zealand adopted a proportional voting system in 1996, leading to a succession of multi-party governments. While the count has not been finalized, the figures were enough for opposition leader Judith Collins to concede after phoning Ardern.

“Congratulations on your result because it is, I believe, an outstanding result for the Labour Party. It has been a tough campaign,” Collins told cheering supporters in Auckland. Her conservative National Party was expected to take around 35 seats in what appears to be its worst result in nearly 20 years. Ardern’s performance beat pre-election opinion polls and put Labour on course for its strongest showing since 1946.

Labour Party president Claire Szabo praised the campaign of the charismatic leader, who sparked a wave of support dubbed “Jacinda-mania” when she took over the party in 2017 as it was languishing in the polls.

“There’s no doubt the strong, great leadership we’ve had from Jacinda Ardern has been a massive factor in all this,” she said. Ardern had dubbed the vote “the Covid election” and campaigned on her government’s success in eliminating community transmission of the virus, which has caused just 25 deaths in a population of five million.

“No matter what crisis is thrown my way, you will always be assured I will give my everything to this job, even if that means a huge sacrifice,” she said this week.