The 2019 Auckland mayoral election was held on 12 October 2019 to determine who would serve as

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 amal ...

for the next three years. Nominations opened on 19 July 2019 and closed on 16 August 2019. Incumbent Mayor

Phil Goff Philip Bruce Goff (born 22 June 1953) is a New Zealand politician. He was a member of the New Zealand Parliament from 1981 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 2016. He served as leader of the Labour Party and leader of the Opposition between 11 No ...

won the election with 48% of the vote to secure a second term.

Background

was the incumbent mayor of Auckland. Goff became mayor at the 2016 election in which the previous mayor,

Len Brown Leonard Charles Brown (born 1 October 1956)) is a former mayor of Auckland, New Zealand, and former head of the Auckland Council. He won the 2010 Auckland mayoral election on 9 October 2010 and was sworn in as Mayor of Auckland on 1 Novembe ...

, did not stand. Goff announced in March 2019 that he would stand again. The election was conducted by postal vote, and used the

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 ...

vote system.

Key dates

Key dates for the election were: *1 July: Electoral Commission enrolment campaign began. *19 July: Nominations opened for candidates. Rolls opened for inspection. *16 August: Nominations closed at 12 noon. Rolls closed. *21 August: Election date and candidates' names announced. *20 to 25 September: Voting documents delivered to households. Electors could post the documents back to electoral officers as soon as they had voted. *12 October: Polling day. Voting documents had to be at council before voting closed at 12 noon. Preliminary results were to be available as soon as all ordinary votes were counted. *17 to 23 October: Official results, including all valid ordinary and special votes, declared.

Candidates

The 21 candidates for the mayoralty were:

Prospective candidates who did not stand

The following people indicated they might, or would, run for mayor in this election, but ultimately did not. *

Mike Lee Michael Shumway Lee (born June 4, 1971) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Utah, a seat he has held since 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party. Lee began his career as a clerk for the U ...

, councillor *John Lehmann, president of the Government Accountability League – announced intention to run but did not appear in the list of candidates when nominations closed *Joshua Love, hospitality entrepreneur – announced intention to run but did not appear in the list of candidates when nominations closed *

Simon O'Connor Simon David O'Connor (born 25 February 1976) is a New Zealand politician and a member of the New Zealand House of Representatives. He is a member of the National Party. He has represented the Tāmaki electorate since 2011. He is a member of ...

, MP for Tamaki *John Palino, restaurateur and

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

and 2016 candidate – announced intention to run on 25 November 2018 but withdrew on 12 August 2019, intending to run for

Auckland Council Auckland Council ( mi, Te Kaunihera o Tāmaki Makaurau) is the local government council for the Auckland Region in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority that has the responsibilities, duties and powers of a regional council and so is ...

instead.

Policies and campaigning

The campaign included a number of debates. One debate between Goff, Tamihere, Lord, and Henry discussed issues such as infrastructure, public transport, climate change, parking, and inequality, among other topics. The last debate was on 1 October. Candidate Phil Goff compared the campaign to the previous one saying: "It's a lot different from last time, we had a lot of meetings last time, it's been a more aggressive campaign from his ohn Tamihere'sside." Candidate John Tamihere faced controversy for using the term "

Sieg Heil The Nazi salute, also known as the Hitler salute (german: link=no, Hitlergruß, , Hitler greeting, ; also called by the Nazi Party , 'German greeting', ), or the ''Sieg Heil'' salute, is a gesture that was used as a greeting in Nazi Germany. Th ...

" during a debate. After Goff stated "We won't put up with the sort of nonsense that we get from racists coming into this country to tell us that multiculturalism doesn't work," Tamihere responded, "I say sieg heil to that." After the debate, Tamihere initially denied using the term, then stated his comments were a criticism of Goff's actions around a decision to bar controversial Canadian speakers Stefan Molyneux and

Lauren Southern Lauren Cherie Southern (born 16 June 1995) is a Canadian alt-right YouTuber, political activist and commentator. In 2015, Southern ran as a Libertarian Party candidate in the Canadian federal election. Southern worked for Rebel Media until M ...

from using an Auckland Council venue in 2018, calling Goff "a dictator". Tamihere made a complaint over three social media posts posted by Phil Goff, but the complaints were rejected by the Advertising Standards Authority. Some voting booklets contained two incorrect photographs, including showing mayoral candidate Tricia Cheel as a man.

Endorsements

;Phil Goff *

New Zealand Labour Party The New Zealand Labour Party ( mi, Rōpū Reipa o Aotearoa), 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 descr ...

– political party *

David Tua Faumuina To'aletai Mafaufau David Tua (born 21 November 1972), best known as David Tua, is a Samoan-New Zealand former professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2013. A highly ranked heavyweight contender for most of his career, Tua was kno ...

– professional boxer ;John Tamihere *

Christine Fletcher Christine Elizabeth Fletcher (née Lees, born 25 January 1955) is a New Zealand politician. Currently an Auckland Council councillor, she was previously a National Party Member of Parliament from 1990 to 1999, and served one term as Mayor of A ...

– current councillor *

John Banks John Banks or Bankes may refer to: Politics and law *Sir John Banks, 1st Baronet (1627–1699), English merchant and Member of Parliament * John Banks (American politician) (1793–1864), U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania *John Gray Banks (188 ...

– former

Mayor of Auckland City The Mayor of Auckland City was the directly elected head of the Auckland City Council, the municipal government of Auckland City, New Zealand. The office existed from 1871 to 2010, when the Auckland City Council and mayoralty was abolished and ...

Results

By local board

Source:

Turnout

Turnout was expected to be lower than in previous elections. Initial counts, while voting was still open, showed turnout to be lower compared with the same time in the 2016 election. The final turnout for Auckland was predicted to be around 35%.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Auckland Mayoral Election, 2019 Mayoral elections in Auckland Auckland Council 2019 elections in New Zealand 2010s in Auckland October 2019 events in New Zealand