The 2010 Auckland mayoral election, was part of the

2010 New Zealand local elections The 2010 New Zealand local elections were triennial elections to select local government officials and district health board members. All elections are conducted by postal ballot, with election day being Saturday 9 October 2010. Elected were: ...

. It was the first election of a mayor for the enlarged

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 ...

, informally known as the "super-city". The election was won by sitting mayor of

Manukau City Manukau City was a 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 ...

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 ...

with 48.7% votes, over sitting mayor of

Auckland City Auckland City was a territorial authority with city status covering the central isthmus of the urban area of Auckland, New Zealand. It was governed by the Auckland City Council from 1989 to 2010, and as a territory within the wider Auckland R ...

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 ...

with 35.17% and first-time candidate

Colin Craig Colin Craig (born 8 January 1968) is a New Zealand businessman and perennial candidate who was the founding leader of the Conservative Party of New Zealand. Craig is a millionaire who owns companies that manage high-rise buildings. His current ...

with 8.73%. The sitting mayor of

North Shore City North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

Andrew Williams polled fourth and actor/director

Simon Prast Simon Prast is a director and actor from Auckland, New Zealand. Prast was the founder of the Auckland Theatre Company and director of the first Auckland Festival AK03. Early life Prast grew up in Otara and Waikowhai, Auckland. He was educated at ...

fifth. The election occurred on Saturday 9 October 2010, as per the Local Electoral Act 2001. Like the majority of New Zealand mayoral elections, the election was held by

postal voting Postal voting is voting in an election where ballot papers are distributed to electors (and typically returned) by Mail, post, in contrast to electors voting in person at a polling place, polling station or electronically via an electronic voti ...

using 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 ...

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.

Candidates

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

mayor

announced his candidacy on 30 August 2009. *

mayor

announced his candidacy on 10 November 2009. He was later found guilty of filing a false electoral return after the election. * Actor/director

announced his candidacy on 25 June 2010. *

Direct democracy Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the Election#Electorate, electorate decides on policy initiatives without legislator, elected representatives as proxies. This differs from the majority of currently establishe ...

campaigner Colin Craig announced his candidacy on 28 June 2010. *

mayor Andrew Williams announced his candidacy on 10 July 2010. 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

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 ...

and

Stephen Tindall Sir Stephen Robert Tindall (born May 1951) is the founder of New Zealand retailer The Warehouse, The Warehouse Group, and the Tindall Foundation. Early life and education Tindall attended Takapuna Grammar and has a Diploma of Management from the ...

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 Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

, and John Banks with

National National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

, some analysts remarked that the election was likely to involve more party politics than usual in Auckland. 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

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.

Results

^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.

Results (final)

For final results of the voting, se
here

References

External links