The 1968 Auckland City mayoral election was part of the New Zealand local elections held that same year. In 1968, elections were held for the

Mayor of Auckland The Mayor of Auckland is the directly elected head of the Auckland Council, the local government authority for the Auckland Region in New Zealand, which it controls as a unitary authority. The position exists since October 2010 after the amalga ...

plus other local government positions including twenty-one city councillors. The polling was conducted using the standard

first-past-the-post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

electoral method.

Background

Incumbent Mayor

Roy McElroy Roy Granville McElroy (2 April 1907 – 16 May 1994) was a New Zealand lawyer and politician, who served as mayor of Auckland City from 1965 to 1968. Early life and career Born in Auckland on 2 April 1907, McElroy was the son of Herbert Thoma ...

of the Citizens & Ratepayers ticket was defeated by his predecessor

Dove-Myer Robinson Sir Dove-Myer Robinson (15 June 1901 – 14 August 1989) was Mayor of Auckland City from 1959 to 1965 and from 1968 to 1980, the longest tenure of any holder of the office. He was a colourful character and became affectionately known across New ...

. Labour Party councillor George Forsyth ran again for a second time, however he was refused official party endorsement as Labour officials preferred Robinson as Mayor to McElroy and thought fielding their own candidate would allow McElroy to be re-elected on a split vote. Robinson's promise of a "rapid rail" system to ease Auckland's mounting traffic problems was a major talking point. A new ticket, the Civic Action Party was set up as an anti-rapid rail group, some of whose members were former local body politicians. Facing bitter opposition to his independent candidature Forsyth received half a dozen threatening telephone calls (who did not reveal their names) and even members of his family were abused whilst travelling publicly in buses. Forsyth said he was not worried about the callers but thought it was a "pretty poor state of affairs" that he could not offer himself as a candidate for public office in without encountering " Chicago-style opposition."

Mayoralty results

Councillor results

References

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Auckland City Mayoral Election, 1968 Mayoral elections in Auckland 1968 elections in New Zealand Politics of the Auckland Region 1960s in Auckland October 1968 events in New Zealand