Big success for Alliance in Auckland elections

By Keith Locke

AUCKLAND -- I've never seen business leaders and conservative politicians so glum. For decades, they have ruled local politics in Auckland, but in October 12 elections for four councils across the city, the remarkable success of the Alliance has ended their domination.

The Alliance -- a coalition of the NewLabour Party, the Greens, the Liberal Party and Mana Motuhake -- won 74 seats in all, including substantial representation on the Auckland Regional Council, where it secured five of 13 seats. It won two of the four mayoral positions. And it won representation on several community boards.

The Alliance also won four of the six positions on the Regional Services Trust, recently set up by the National government to privatise the Auckland ports, buses and forests. The Alliance won control of the trust with a “no sales” platform.

All Alliance candidates polled well, indicating a big vote for the slate in a situation where personal politics usually holds a big sway. It was a wonderful result given that, in the past, political parties have tended to leave local government to “personalities” and the conservative Citizens and Ratepayers groups.

The Labour Party was scared to run against the Alliance in most places, winning only seven city council and community board seats. The Labour MP for Auckland wrote a letter to supporters advising a vote for Citizens and Ratepayers' candidates rather than the Alliance.

The Auckland result has put the Alliance at the centre of the nationwide fight against privatisation.

Next, as one commentator put it, “the Alliance band wagon rolls into the Wellington Central electorate”, where there will be a parliamentary by-election before the end of the year.

Alliance successes were not as numerous in Christchurch. But in Wellington, an Alliance-backed Green Team won several seats.

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