When four-term Manurewa Local Board member Angela Cunningham-Marino narrowly missed re-election in October last year, people contacted her in total disbelief.
Among the unexpected calls was one from Manurewa Action Team leader Daniel Newman.
Cunningham-Marino recalls Newman telling her that he stood “100% behind” his Manurewa Action Team candidates, Phyllis Latu and Marshal Ahluwalia, and that they had achieved their results through “honest hard work”. But to Cunningham-Marino, “the results didn’t add up”.
Joseph Allan, who has served on the Manurewa Local Board since 2016 and was its Chair from 2019 to 2022, agrees.
“It is common knowledge that candidates seeking re-election have the advantage,” Allan said. “From time to time, a candidate who isn't already on the Board will outpoll one or two candidates seeking re-election. But for two such candidates to leapfrog five sitting candidates in the same Local Board area was extraordinary.”
A fist full of voting papers in headlines raises serious concerns about the 2025 Manurewa Local Board Elections.An analysis of Local Board election results since the creation of the Super City shows that incumbent candidates — those already serving on a Local Board and seeking re-election — are more than three times as likely to be elected.
Since 2013, only nine non-incumbent candidates across Auckland had outpolled five or more candidates seeking re-election.
In 2025, only two candidates across all of Auckland achieved this feat: Phyllis Latu and Marshal Ahluwalia, both candidates for the Manurewa Action Team.
Previous candidates to achieve comparable results include former Cabinet minister Chris Carter, former Waitākere City Councillor Sandra Coney, prominent businessman and rugby administrator Bill McEntee, well-known actor Oscar Kightley and former All Black Keven Mealamu.
“These were candidates with obvious reasons for attracting an exceptional vote — high political office, established community profiles or national recognition,” Allan said. “The scale of the 2025 Manurewa results stands out because neither candidate had a comparable public profile.”
For the first time in the history of the Super City, two non-incumbent candidates standing in the same Local Board area outpolled five sitting Local Board members seeking re-election.
“The results themselves do not prove electoral fraud,” Allan said. “But they are genuine statistical outliers. When you combine that with headlines concerning voting papers and electoral irregularities, it is reasonable to ask questions and expect those questions to be properly answered.”
It has been reported that Newman said he is launching a review of candidate selection processes to weed out potential “bad eggs” from his political ticket. Cunningham-Marino questions whether such a review can provide public confidence if responsibility for candidate selection ultimately rests with Newman himself.
“Who is he asking to do this review?” Cunningham-Marino said. “From where I stand, Daniel Newman is responsible for candidate selection on the Manurewa Action Team and he should be held accountable.”
Newman has also said he had sought assurances from his candidates that they had complied with electoral law and had received those assurances. He told the New Zealand Herald he had “absolutely lost confidence” in one elected Local Board member over separate historical matters and that he “would lose confidence in any member involved in what has been alleged”.
“That raises a very simple question,” Allan said. “Which members of the Manurewa Action Team still have Daniel Newman's confidence?”
“By refusing to attend Manurewa Local Board meetings in person he has effectively abandoned his entire team. Are we to interpret his boycott as meaning there is more to come? If he is serious about weeding out the ‘bad eggs’, the people of Manurewa deserve to know who he believes those people are!”
Who is still in Action?
Daniel Newman with Action Team candidates he endorsed for the 2025 Local Board Elections. Ahluwalia was removed from Action in June the following year.Allan says Newman should now apply the same standard of accountability to himself that he has applied to others.
“Daniel Newman has spent years in politics talking about accountability and the integrity of elections. He has told another elected representative to take responsibility. Now that his own political organisation is under scrutiny, it is time for him to heed his own advice.”