Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown and Deputy Mayor Des Simpson. Photo: RNZ
Wayne Brown failed to "win" large parts of Auckland in the election to become the city's third mayor, with a detailed breakdown of voting patterns showing he was outvoted in the south and west.
Of 32 local board "subdivisions" across the city, Brown won 19, with his main rival, Labour and Greens-endorsed Efeso Collins winning 13.
While Brown's haul of votes was similar to that of his predecessor Phil Goff in 2019, it was less uniform across the city, compared with Goff, who three years ago won all but one of the areas.
Brown has made much of what he calls his mandate and his press releases regularly mention his total vote haul of 181,810 suggesting he gained bigger than usual support. Collins gained 124,802 votes.
On Thursday, in his first media conference since taking up the reins, Brown pointed out that the 20 councillors he will lead should remember the strength of support for his key election policies.
"The people that voted for me are the people that voted for all of the councillors, and they will be aware that in going against those things, they will be going against the people who put them there in the first place," Brown told journalists.
Collins out-polled Brown in the west, from the Whau subdivision around Avondale and New Lynn, out to the Waitakere Ranges, and Henderson-Massey.
The former Manukau ward councillor also won central city Waitematā, and the central and southern board subdivisions of Owairaka, Maungakiekie, Tamaki, Māngere-Ōtāhuhu, Papatoetoe, Manurewa and Ōtara, as well as the small Aotea/Great Barrier and Waiheke Island board areas.
When Brown won however, he won with sometimes huge margins, cleaning up on the North Shore, the eastern suburbs, and the northern and southern rural board areas, out-polling Collins by three votes to one in some areas.
Brown's share of the overall vote at 45 percent is marginally the smallest vote share in the five Auckland Council elections, since it was created in 2010.
The detailed breakdown does not diminish the solid mandate Brown won overall, but it does diminish his stance that councillors were elected by the same people who elected him as mayor.
Eight of the elected councillors represent areas which preferred Efeso Collins to lead Auckland, and Brown has previously urged them to advocate and deliver on the promises they made to their communities.
The first business meeting of the council's Governing Body, is on Tuesday.
* This story originally appeared on Stuff.