An election was held for the

Mayor of Auckland The mayor of Auckland is the elected head of local government in the Auckland Region of New Zealand's North Island; one of 67 Mayors in New Zealand, mayors in the country. The principle city of the region (and its namesake) is Auckland. The may ...

in September and October 2016, closing on 8 October, as part of the 2016 Auckland local government elections. Phil Goff was elected.

Background

Len Brown, previously the Mayor of Manukau City, was elected to two three-year terms as

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

and

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

, following the merger of several councils, including Manukau City Council, to form

Auckland Council Auckland Council () is the local government council for the Auckland Region in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority that also has the responsibilities, duties and powers of a regional council and so is a unitary authority, according to t ...

in 2010. He did not stand in 2016.

Candidates

*Mario Alupis. *Aileen Austin (Independent). * Penny Bright (Independent), activist and 2013 mayoral candidate. *Patrick Brown (Communist League). *Tricia Cheel (STOP). *Victoria Crone (Independent), New Zealand managing director of Xero; announced candidacy on 14 December 2015. * Phil Goff (Independent), Labour MP for Mount Roskill; announced candidacy on 22 November 2015. *David Hay (Independent), former

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

parliamentary candidate for Rodney and

Epsom Epsom is a town in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England, about south of central London. The town is first recorded as ''Ebesham'' in the 10th century and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain ...

and former policy analyst for Manukau City and

; announced candidacy on 20 November 2015. *Alezix Heneti. *Adam Holland (Auckland Legalise Cannabis),

perennial candidate A perennial candidate is a political candidate who frequently runs for elected office and rarely, if ever, wins. Perennial candidates are most common where there is no limit on the number of times that a person can run for office and little cost ...

*Susanna Kruger *Stan Martin (Independent). *Bin Thanh Nguyen (Independent). *Phil O'Conner (Christians Against Abortion). *John Palino (Independent), entrepreneur and 2013 mayoral runner-up; confirmed candidacy on 29 February 2016. *Tyrone Raumati (Greater Auckland), West Auckland based community leader. * Chlöe Swarbrick (Independent), University of Auckland double graduate, journalist, and entrepreneur; announced candidacy on 4 July 2016. *Mark Thomas (Independent), deputy chair of the

Ōrākei Local Board The Ōrākei Local Board is one of the 21 local boards of Auckland Council. It is coterminous with the Ōrākei ward. It was chaired in its first two terms by local politician Desley Simpson following the 2010 and 2013 elections. In the 20 ...

; announced candidacy on 24 September 2015. During September he asked to withdraw from the race, conceding that it was "inevitable" that Phil Goff would win the election. Although he could not be removed from the ballot papers, Thomas refocused his campaign on Goff. *Wayne Young.

Prospective candidates who did not stand

* Len Brown, incumbent mayor * John Banks, former Mayor of Auckland City, former National MP for Whangarei, ACT MP for

and 2010 mayoral candidate *Michael Barnett, CEO of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce * Stephen Berry (Affordable Auckland), second runner-up in 2013 mayoral election and ACT candidate for parliamentary electorate of Upper Harbour in 2014 general election; announced candidacy on 11 April 2015 for the mayor as well as council seat for the Albany ward. Withdrew from mayoral race on 21 March 2016 and endorsed John Palino. * Cameron Brewer, Auckland councillor for the

Ōrākei ward Ōrākei is a suburb of Auckland city, in the North Island of New Zealand. It is located on a peninsula five kilometres to the east of the city centre, on the shore of the Waitematā Harbour, which lies to the north, and Hobson Bay and Ōrā ...

* Colin Craig, founder and former leader of the Conservative Party *Tex Edwards, co-founder of mobile telecommunications company 2degrees * Theresa Gattung, former CEO of Telecom New Zealand * Paul Henry, broadcaster * Penny Hulse, incumbent deputy mayor of Auckland * Maurice Williamson, National MP for Pakuranga

Debates

A debate held on 15 February was attended by Goff, Crone, Bright, Thomas,

Berry A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples of berries in the cul ...

and Hay. Goff promoted the public-private partnership construction of a

light rail Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...

network in Auckland, while

described the idea as fiscally irresponsible and out of date. Maria Slade of Stuff.co.nz opined the debate outcome as a victory for Goff. Goff, Crone and Thomas participated in a 17 June debate, in which traffic congestion was discussed, and Goff lamented the late commitment to the City Rail Link as an example of poor investment in public infrastructure. A debate was scheduled for 8 September at the University of Auckland's School of Architecture and Planning, to be chaired by journalist Rod Oram.

Opinion polling

Results

By local board

Source:

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Auckland Mayoral Election, 2016 Mayoral elections in Auckland Mayoral 2016 elections in New Zealand 2010s in Auckland October 2016 in New Zealand