North Shore candidate Ngozi Penson has had her signs for local board election removed repeatedly. Photo: Supplied / Facebook
An Auckland local body elections candidate of African descent is the latest to have their hoardings targeted, amidst a spate of attacks on billboards of ethnic candidates.
Ngozi Penson, who is running for Kaipātiki local board, said three of her hoardings were removed days after they were installed, while another was knocked out twice.
North Shore candidate Ngozi Penson has had three of her hoardings removed days after they were installed, while another was knocked out twice. Photo: Supplied / Facebook
Penson moved to New Zealand from Nigeria 24 years ago, and said it has been a long journey of her getting to this point of running for a local government seat.
"But to have three taken away, from where they were installed, it's almost like - do people not want me in the picture?
"If we truly want to encourage diversity and inclusion in local board governance, then I think we need to do more as a society to not target people that are putting themselves out there, to help inform policies and processes and contribute."
In recent weeks, the billboards of at least seven ethnic candidates had been vandalised - some with candidates' faces cut out or painted over, others with racist slurs written over them.
Another North Shore candidate, Joe Zhou, had racist slurs graffitied over at least eight of his billboards.
The majority of those targeted were of Asian descent.
Mayor Phil Goff earlier told RNZ that more representation was needed in Auckland's local government, and that the latest incidents undermined those goals.
He hoped the broader community could report these acts and help police track down the offenders.
Official information from the police shows 8246 hate-motivated offences have been recorded over the past three years.