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Registered | 961,536 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Turnout | 487,703 (50.1%) [2] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Auckland mayoral election, 2010, was part of the New Zealand local elections, 2010. It was the first election of a mayor for the enlarged Auckland Council, informally known as the "super-city". The election was won by sitting mayor of Manukau City Len Brown with 48.7% votes, over sitting mayor of Auckland City John Banks with 35.17% and first-time candidate Colin Craig with 8.73%. The sitting mayor of North Shore City Andrew Williams polled fourth and actor/director Simon Prast fifth. [2]
The Auckland Council is the local government council for the Auckland Region in New Zealand. The governing body consists of a mayor and 20 councillors, elected from 13 wards. There are also 149 members of 21 local boards who make decisions on matters local to their communities. It is the largest council in Oceania, with a $3 billion annual budget, $29 billion of ratepayer equity, and 9,870 full-time staff as of 30 June 2016. The council began operating on 1 November 2010, combining the functions of the previous regional council and the region's seven city and district councils into one "super council" or "super city".
Manukau City is a former territorial authority district in Auckland, New Zealand, that was governed by the Manukau City Council. The area is sometimes referred to as "South Auckland", although this term never possessed official recognition and does not encompass areas such as East Auckland, which was within the city boundary. It was a relatively young city, both in terms of legal status and large-scale settlement – though in June 2010, it was the third largest in New Zealand, and the fastest growing. In 2010, the entire Auckland Region was amalgamated under a single city authority, Auckland Council.
The election occurred on Saturday 9 October 2010, as per the Local Electoral Act 2001. [3] Like the majority of New Zealand mayoral elections, the election was held by postal voting using the first-past-the-post system. It was the largest election of the 2010 local elections, with some 961,536 eligible voters (32.5% of all registered voters nationally) able to vote in the election. [4] [5]
Postal voting is voting in an election whereby ballot papers are distributed to electors or returned by post, in contrast to electors voting in person at a polling station or electronically via an electronic voting system. Historically, postal votes must be distributed and placed in return mail before the scheduled election day, it is sometimes referred to as a form of early voting. It can also be used as an absentee ballot. However, in recent times the model in the US has morphed, in municipalities that use postal voting exclusively, to be one of ballots being mailed out to voters, but the return method taking on alternatives of return by mail or dropping off the ballot in person via secure drop boxes and/or voting centers.
Several candidates announced their intentions to run for mayor of Auckland before official nominations opened.
Leonard "Len" Brown is a former Mayor of Auckland, New Zealand and head of the Auckland Council. He won the 2010 Auckland mayoral election on 9 October 2010 and was sworn in as the Mayor of Auckland on 1 November 2010, being the first to hold that title for the amalgamated 'Auckland Super City', and was re-elected in 2013. Brown had previously been elected Mayor of Manukau City in October 2007, the second time he ran for that office. Brown is married to Shirley Anne "Shan" Inglis, and has three daughters: Samantha, Olivia and Victoria.
Auckland City is the part of Auckland urban area covering the isthmus and most of the islands of the Hauraki Gulf. The core of Auckland City is the Auckland CBD, a major financial and commercial centre, surrounded by many suburbs. It was formerly the name of a local authority district that was governed by Auckland City Council; it lay within the wider Auckland Region, which was governed by Auckland Regional Council. Auckland City was disestablished as a local government district on 1 November 2010, when Auckland City Council was amalgamated with other councils of the Auckland Region into the new Auckland Council.
John Archibald Banks is a New Zealand politician. He was a member of Parliament for the National Party from 1981 to 1999, and for ACT New Zealand from 2011 to 2014. He was a Cabinet Minister from 1990 to 1996 and 2011 to 2013. He left Parliament after being a convicted of filing a false electoral return – a verdict which was later overturned.
Nominations opened on 23 July 2010, and closed at 12 noon NZST (UTC+12) on 20 August 2010. At the close of nominations, 23 candidates had put their name forward.
Source | Date (published) | Banks | Brown | Williams | Lee | Tindall | Margin of error |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
UMR - New Zealand Herald | April 2009 | 17% | 6% | 1% | |||
23 July 2009 | 34% | 35% | 4.5% | ||||
UMR - New Zealand Herald | November -December, 2009 | 31% | 42% | 4.5% | |||
Herald on Sunday/Buzz Channel | December, 2009 | 8.2% | 23.8% | 5.7% | 11.6% | ||
Curia | February, 2010 | 42.5% | 38.1% | 1.3% | 4.8% | ||
UMR - New Zealand Herald | 30 April and 12 May | 37% | 48.4% | 3.6% | |||
Digipoll - New Zealand Herald | (14 August 2010) | 28.7% | 29.6% | 3.9% | 3.5% | ||
Digipoll - New Zealand Herald | (16 September 2010) | 27.8% | 29.8% | 1% | 3.5% |
Mike Lee and Stephen Tindall did not stand for mayor (though Lee stood as a councillor) but they were included in several opinion polls on a "what if" basis only.
Michael (Mike) Lee is a councillor on the Auckland Council and the former chairman of the Auckland Regional Council, both in Auckland, New Zealand. He chairs the transport committee of Auckland Council, and sits on the board of Auckland Transport.
Sir Stephen Robert Tindall is the founder of New Zealand retailer The Warehouse, and of the Tindall Foundation.
Because Len Brown is generally associated with Labour, and John Banks with National, some analysts remarked that the election was likely to involve more party politics than usual in Auckland. [12]
The New Zealand Labour Party, or simply Labour, is a centre-left political party in New Zealand. The party's platform programme describes its founding principle as democratic socialism, while observers describe Labour as social-democratic and pragmatic in practice. It is a participant of the international Progressive Alliance.
The New Zealand National Party, shortened to National or the Nats, is a centre-right political party in New Zealand. It is one of two major parties that dominate contemporary New Zealand politics, alongside its traditional rival, the New Zealand Labour Party.
The two front-running candidates Brown and Banks were estimated to have spent around $1 million each on their campaigns, most from bigger donors. It was commented that the fact that Banks' advertising concentrated too much on the old Auckland City area, missing out other parts of the new council areas, and especially the south, may have played a role in his poorer than expected showing. [13]
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ± | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Independent | Len Brown | 237,487 | 49.24 | +23.91a | |
Independent | John Banks | 171,542 | 35.57 | -11.20a | |
Independent | Colin Craig | 42,598 | 8.83 | ||
Independent | Andrew Williams | 4,023 | 0.83 | -98.13a | |
Independent | Simon Prast | 3,841 | 0.80 | ||
Independent | Mark Ross | 3,246 | 0.67 | ||
Independent | Vanessa Neeson | 3,051 | 0.63 | ||
Independent | Penny Bright | 2,706 | 0.56 | ||
Independent | Hugh Chapman | 2,015 | 0.42 | ||
Independent | Aileen Austin | 1,632 | 0.34 | ||
Independent | Alan McCulloch | 1,589 | 0.33 | ||
Independent | Harry Fong | 1,487 | 0.31 | ||
Christians Against Abortion | Phil O'Connor | 1,297 | 0.27 | ||
Independent | Vinnie Kahui | 1,177 | 0.24 | ||
Independent | Nga Dave | 893 | 0.19 | ||
Independent | Marlene Barr | 718 | 0.15 | ||
Independent | Steve McDonald | 677 | 0.14 | ||
Independent | Wayne Young | 574 | 0.12 | ||
Roads First | David Willmott | 542 | 0.11 | ||
Independent | Shannon Gillies | 486 | 0.10 | ||
Communist League | Annalucia Vermunt | 451 | 0.09 | ||
Independent | Raymond Presland | 294 | 0.06 | ||
Total valid votes | 482,326 | ||||
Rejected ballots | 5377 | {{{change}}} | |||
Turnout | 487,703 | 50.17b |
a Relative to their percentage win in their respective cities in 2007.
b Based on 20 August 2010 close of roll figure of 961,536 enrolled electors. [4]
For final results of the voting, see here.
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