Source: Youtube/Whaleoil

New Zealand's Labour Party has elected David Cunliffe as its new leader to run for the 2014 election and hopefully block Prime Minister John Key's plan to seek a third term in office.

Mr Cunliffe won a caucus vote among affiliated unions and party members. The 50-year-old bested Maori Affairs spokesperson Shane Jones and deputy leader Grant Robertson for the position. David Cunliffe replaced David Shearer who left the Labour leadership vacant in August.

Now that Mr Cunliffe is the leader of the New Zealand Labour Party, he will be responsible in unifying party and gather more support from the public if he plans to beat John Key when the prime minister seeks re-election.

In a Colmar Brunton poll of 1,006 voters in July, New Zealand Labour had 33 per cent of public support compared to Mr Key's National Party with 46 per cent.

In his speech after accepting the leadership post of the Labour Party, he declared that the party must beat Mr Key in the 2014 elections. He said the only way to achieve that is to mobilise everyone, including the affiliates and the caucus. Mr Cunliffe invoked unity and said if everyone will come together as one, the true winners will be New Zealanders.

On Aug. 22, David Shearer resigned as Labour leader and said he no longer has the support of the caucus. One Newspoll survey revealed that 13 per cent of Kiwis voted for David Shearer as preferred prime minister compared to John Key's 41 per cent.

Mr Cunliffe had previously challenged Mr Shearer for the Labour leadership which may have led many to believe that he will be a formidable opponent to Mr Key in the next election. He is more electable than Mr Jones and Mr Robertson because of his electorate representation in Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand.

Other contenders such as Grant Robertson is not popular in Auckland compared to Mr Cunliffe. Shane Jones had a damaged reputation when he was involved in using a taxpayer-funded credit card to purchase porn movies in 2010.

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