New Zealand: Gains for right in council elections

Across the board, the right made gains in Greater Auckland's council elections at the expense of both the political centre (Labour-aligned tickets) and the grassroots left (notably RAM — the Residents Action Movement).

Underpinning this shift to the right was the declining minority of the grassroots that voted. The statistics from electoral officials indicate that the non-vote was far greater in modest-income suburbs as compared to wealthier "green leaf" suburbs.

With the middle class leaning right and most of the working class not voting, even Labour-aligned tickets suffered, despite offering little that was different to hard right groupings. It appears that traditional conservatives have captured seven seats on Auckland City Council, including recycled mayor John Banks, giving them a 15-5 majority over Labour/City Vision, which was the ruling faction last term.

At Auckland Regional Council, the hard right defeated one Labour-aligned centrist and Labour captured RAM's single seat, shifting the ARC rightwards. The centre and the right now hold six seats each, with the fate of the 13-member ARC hinging on the vote of a maverick conservative who will probably swing right.

RAM received more than 100,000 votes in the elections for the Auckland Regional Council and Auckland City Council.

[Abridged from http://www.unityaotearoa.blogspot.com.]

From GLW issue 728