Alezix Heneti had the lowest number of votes for Auckland mayor. Photo / Duncan Brown
Alezix Heneti had the lowest number of votes for Auckland mayor. Photo / Duncan Brown
The Auckland mayoral candidate with the lowest number of votes has stood for mayor five times in three different cities.
Alezix Heneti scored just 453 votes but the 59-year-old grandmother says that while she was saddened by the poor turnout in her favour, she has other plans to travel andwrite a book.
She has stood for mayor twice in Auckland, including in 2016, twice in Hamilton while she studied a double degree at the University of Waikato, and once in the Northland district while she nursed a cousin who had been in a car crash.
Heneti told the Herald on Sunday she always came last but despite the setbacks, she remained positive.
"I get sad and then I get over it."
Comedian Tom Sainsbury - or rather his alter ego Fiona - scored four times as many votes as Heneti with 2447.
There were also three times as many informal votes than for Heneti and 13.5 times more blank votes.
The figures compare with Auckland Mayor Phil Goff's 155,957 - which he said was 48 per cent of the vote - John Tamihere's 70,822 and Craig Lord's 25,430.
A Rod Emmerson caricature from 2016 when she last stood for Auckland Mayor.
Heneti also stood in the Hibiscus Coast ward for the local board and in the Albany ward placing last again.
She said she never had a campaign budget and used only social media to promote herself.
But she believed her failure was political because she did not have an "agenda".
Heneti was used to winning in life, having built up multiple successful businesses ranging from op-shops and recycled boutiques to telemarketing, landscape designing and consulting.
She had also given years of voluntary service to community organisations from stroke support to youth groups - fitting all that in between being a mother to five children, 10 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
In her candidate's profile for yesterday's election, the Orewa woman said the skills she would bring to council included delegation, picked up through being one of 19 siblings.
She would also use her knowledge gained through extensive training in Landmark - a personal and professional growth, training and development company focusing on people achieving success.
Heneti, who majored in philosophy and religious studies and studied democracy, backed Goff as the right man for the job because he genuinely cared.
