ACT leader David Seymour says the Prime Minister is undermining this year's General Election by keeping New Zealanders in alert level 2 "for another month".
Jacinda Ardern announced on Monday Kiwis will know when we're moving to level 1 within the next month, saying the Government will make its final call on when to make the move by June 22.
"It is the Government's view that we should also move as quickly as we safely can to alert level 1.
"On that basis Cabinet will check in again on our settings on the 8th of June, and we've agreed that no later than the 22nd of June - four weeks from today - we will consider the move to alert level 1."
But Seymour wrote in a Facebook post the decision to delay an official announcement is "self-serving" by the Government.
"Labour and Jacinda Ardern are undermining this year's election by keeping New Zealanders at alert level 2 for another month.
"We're now just 103 days away from advance voting. Before the lockdown, it wasn't unusual to see more than 100 people at a political rally. Now, that's not allowed and can't be planned."
He added suppressing election activity is the "hallmark of undemocratic states" and it has no place in New Zealand.
Seymour believes the delay is politically-motivated and it's now time to get back on with normal life.
"There is no good public health reason for Labour's continued delay in easing restrictions on the economy. For the good of our economy and our democracy, Labour needs to allow New Zealanders to get back to normal as soon as possible."
Public health expert and Otago University professor Michael Baker told The AM Show on Monday New Zealand shouldn't rush back to level 1.
He said China has experienced chains of transmission that go on for many weeks, which has seen it still getting new cases a month after coming out of lockdown. He said Kiwis, for the most part, want a more cautious approach.
"You can show with modelling that if you have four weeks with no cases, you've got more than a 95 percent chance that the disease has gone," he said.
"That doesn't mean that some of the cases now wouldn't necessarily all count - because they may have occurred several weeks ago in terms of when they got infected."
