Newly elected members of a South Auckland local board have denied interfering with voting papers and say their campaign was conducted in full compliance with the law.
The four successful Ōtara-Papatoetoe Local Board candidates have responded to a Herald report that police are considering a complaint about their election.
The complaint alleges theft of ballot papers and standover tactics used against voters.
“We categorically deny any involvement in unlawful or unethical conduct,” a spokesman for the group, Kunal Bhalla, said in a statement.
The complaint was made by a member of the public and originally filed with Election Services. This is the company that ran the election for Auckland Council, including the local boards.
Dale Ofsoske, the chief electoral officer, referred the complaint directly to police.
The successful candidates, Bhalla, Kushma Nair, Sandeep Saini and Paramjeet Singh, belong to the Papatoetoe-Ōtara Action Team. This was a new group in South Auckland local body politics.
They stood in the Papatoetoe subdivision of the local board, an area where Labour candidates commonly win most, if not all, of the four available seats.
This year, the Papatoetoe-Ōtara Action Team won them all.
“Our campaign was conducted in full compliance with electoral regulations and guided by principles of integrity, transparency and fairness,” Bhalla said.
“At no stage did any member of our team interfere with voting papers, instruct voters within polling locations or places of worship or misuse personal data. We have always upheld the values of honesty and accountability and we welcome proper scrutiny of our campaign activities.”
The complaint against the Papatoetoe-Otara Action team alleges “severe electoral malpractice”. The allegations include “nightly vote-stealing by a team of young boys”, voters being instructed how to vote “inside the polling booths” and other instances of voters “in places like temples and churches” being told how to vote.
The police have confirmed they are investigating.
“Police can confirm we have received reports in relation to allegations of electoral fraud linked to the current council elections in Papatoetoe,” police said. “At this stage, police inquiries are in the very early stages and remain ongoing.”
The turnout in most of South Auckland was between 21% and 25%, a fall of one or two percentage points from the 2022 election. But in Papatoetoe, the vote grew by 7.5 percentage points, from 24.1% to 31.6%.
“While this represents a noticeable increase compared with prior elections,” Bhalla said, “it is important to understand that several factors may explain the higher turnout and voter engagement.”
He cited the presence of extra voting boxes and special voting centres, along with “widespread voter-education campaigns and increased community awareness”.
“Our campaign placed considerable emphasis on community outreach, door-to-door engagement and voter education, encouraging residents to enrol and take part in local elections. We believe this proactive approach, combined with Auckland Council’s broader initiatives to make voting more accessible, played a major role in the increased participation.”
Bhalla said the rise in voter turnout “is not unique to our candidates – many others, including those who did not actively campaign, received significant vote counts. This indicates that the overall increase reflects wider civic engagement rather than any irregularity or impropriety”.
The final results of the election were published on Saturday and the Herald has looked more closely at the results in the Papatoetoe subdivision.
The vote for candidates who had stood in the previous election fell, or saw only a small rise.
Among the three incumbent board members standing for re-election, the vote for Labour’s Ashraf Choudhary fell from 3079 to 2679, while the centre-right independent Albert Lim’s vote fell from 3142 to 2371. Labour’s Vi Hausia saw a small rise, from 3117 to 3254. None were re-elected.
But the Papatoetoe-Ōtara Action Team candidates secured an average of 4841 votes. That’s a jump of about 50% over the previous winning totals.
Despite Bhalla’s response claiming the rise “is not unique to our candidates”, the Herald has not identified candidates in any other part of the election who recorded this kind of result.
The police have not commented further on their investigation.
Simon Wilson is an award-winning senior writer covering politics, the climate crisis, transport, housing, urban design and social issues, with a focus on Auckland. He joined the Herald in 2018.