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Manukau City's mayor Len Brown is the first King of the Queen City.
Brown with 221,365 votes, beat sitting Auckland mayor John Banks by 60,000 votes today, with businessman Colin Craig in third with 40,483. North Shore mayor Andrew Williams only got 3813 votes.
Mayor-elect Brown, 53, now has the daunting task of bringing together eight councils to form what's been dubbed a Super City but will now effectively just be known as Auckland City .
Brown had seemed confident in the days leading up to the final vote-counting, and today delivered a well-prepared speech on unifying Auckland, a city that now stretches from Rodney in the north to Pukekohe in the south.
"I'm so proud to be able to stand in front of you today and say that i am the mayor for all of Auckland," he said at a press conference.
"We have turned away from what divides us, we've rather turned towards what unites us... we are a united people.. diverse, Maori, ethnic but united in our humanity."
The new mayor owes a large chunk of his majority to a big turnout in South Auckland, and is being seen as a confidence boost to the centre right.
Labour leader Phil Goff wasted no time congratulating Brown.
"This has been a long and challenging campaign for all the mayoral aspirants, particularly Len Brown and John Banks, and Len has done an exceptional job convincing Aucklanders he is the best person to provide leadership to bring the super city together," Goff said.
"Len Brown won the election as an independent, but it is well known that he is a member of the Labour Party, in fact John Banks based his campaign on running against the Labour Mayor from South Auckland."
But Brown will have to work with the National government despite his Labour leanings.
Today Prime Minister John Key had no concerns about that.
"I am confident that he can do a good job. It's a big task in front of him and the government will want to work alongside him and give him support where we practically can." Key said.
Brown himself isn't holding out a red flag.
"I am absolutely an independent mayor who will work with people right across the political boundaries to make this happen," he said.
The Minister of Local Government Rodney Hide has congratulated Brown.
"Mr Brown ran a very successful campaign and this was reflected in the polls today. I wish him all the best in his new role, and look forward to working with him to ensure that Aucklanders get the best from their new Council," Mr Hide said.
"I believe the Auckland Governance reforms have created a Council that Aucklanders can be proud of. The reforms also generated an unprecedented level of public awareness of local government elections nationwide."
On the streets of South Auckland today, the mood was positive with their man having been victorious.
"It was probably inevitable, he's been really, really good... He's quite involved in the community so i think it will be really good," one said.
Another: "I'm not surprised, the way he's been campaigning and everything else he's got a lot of people behind him especially from South Auckland."
Turnout was high across the country with around 50 percent of those eligible casting votes.
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Add a Comment:
Post new commentNewScotsKiwi said on 2010-10-12 @ 08:36 NZDT: Report abusive post
I hope Aucklanders have deep pockets - and then some.
ramage said on 2010-10-11 @ 00:24 NZDT: Report abusive post
Congatulations Harry you will be a good mayor for New Plymouth well done.
fedup said on 2010-10-10 @ 16:46 NZDT: Report abusive post
I am amazed that the people of New Plymouth voted for Harry Duynhoven after years of doing nothing while in parliament, people have short memories. I only hope that the work Peter Tennet has done for the city won't be wasted.
menacerec said on 2010-10-10 @ 14:26 NZDT: Report abusive post
Earthquakes shouldn't win elections. Democracy is a complete sham and election outcomes are controlled by a story hungry media. I sincerely hope that Jim Anderton doesn't think the public truly believe that Bob Parker could ever do the job half as competently as himself. How embarrassing it is to be a citizen of Christchurch today.
adeej said on 2010-10-10 @ 11:34 NZDT: Report abusive post
Otherwise, I think that in Waitakere, everything went much as expected - with people involved in the previous Waitakere City Council, ARC and local community boards getting voted in.