2010 Auckland mayoral election

The 2010 Auckland mayoral election, was part of the 2010 New Zealand local elections. 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]

2010 Auckland mayoral election
9 October 2010[1]
Registered961,536
Turnout487,703 (50.1%)[2]
 
Candidate Len Brown John Banks
Party Independent Independent
Popular vote 237,487 171,542
Percentage 49.24% 35.57%
 
Candidate Colin Craig Andrew Williams
Party Independent Independent
Popular vote 42,598 4,023
Percentage 8.83% 0.83%
Mayor before election

Position created

 Elected Mayor

Len Brown

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]

Candidates

Several candidates announced their intentions to run for mayor of Auckland before official nominations opened.

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.

Opinion polls and campaigns
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.

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 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]

Results
2010 Auckland Mayoral Election[2]
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
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]

Results (final)

For final results of the voting, see here.

See also

References
  1. "2007 Local Elections". Electoral Commission. Archived from the original on 20 November 2008.
  2. "Final Results - Mayor". Auckland Council. Archived from the original on 11 January 2012. Retrieved 12 October 2013.
  3. Local Electoral Act 2001 No 35 (as at 24 January 2009), Public Act
  4. "Enrolment Statistics for Auckland Council - Elections New Zealand". 20 August 2010. Retrieved 12 October 2010.
  5. "Enrolment Statistics for the whole of New Zealand - Elections New Zealand". 20 August 2010. Retrieved 12 October 2010.
  6. "Len Brown puts his hat in the ring". TVNZ.
  7. "Banksy Launches His SuperMayor Campaign With Rail Promise". Auckland Trains. 12 November 2009. Archived from the original on 15 May 2010. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
  8. "Actor to run for Auckland super city mayor". TVNZ.
  9. Vote Colin Craig (28 June 2010). "Colin Craig Announces Candidacy for Auckland Mayor". Scoop.co.nz.
  10. "Pro-smacking campaigner joins Auckland mayoralty race". TV3.
  11. Orsman, Bernard (10 July 2010). "Andrew Williams: I want to be Super Mayor". New Zealand Herald.
  12. McCracken, Heather (6 June 2010). "'Grey man' to lead the Supercity?". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 26 July 2010.
  13. Leask, Anna; Milne, Jonathan (10 October 2010). "Old fashioned city campaign may have hurt Banks badly". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 16 October 2010.
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