New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English has enjoyed a late surge in popularity ahead of Saturday’s election, opening up a nine point lead on the Jacinta Ardern-led opposition, an opinion poll found Wednesday. The 1News-Colmar Brunton poll put English’s conservative National Party at 46 percent, up six points on last week, while Ardern’s centre-left Labour Party slumped seven points to 37 percent. Ardern’s rating as preferred prime minister also took a hit, down three points to 31 percent while English rose five points to 37. Even with support from the Greens, who were up one point to eight percent in the survey of 1,000 voters, Labour would still trail National. It means both major parties would need support from Winston Peters, leader of the populist New Zealand First party, to form a government under the country’s proportional voting system. Published in Daily Times, September 21st 2017.