The case was heard last week in Manukau District Court before Judge McIlraith, who released his decision this afternoon.
In a statement, the council acknowledged the judge’s comments that the election was carried out properly “and in accordance with all requirements”, including by Independent Election Services and Dale Ofsoske.
The decision means that the election needs to be re-run. Nominations for candidates will be opened on December 31 until midday on January 28 next year.
The three Ōtara elected members will remain on the Local Board, but the board will not have the required quorum of four members to make decisions until the election is completed.
Until the newly elected members come into office, decisions will likely need to be made by staff under delegation within the terms of the existing general delegation to staff. Any decisions taken by the board to date remain valid.
Members of the Papatoetoe-Ōtara Action Team, Bhalla, Kushma Nair, Sandeep Saini and Paramjeet Singh.
Labour’s Hausia and two others standing for re-election all missed out. In their place, the winning candidates came from a new political ticket, the Papatoetoe-Ōtara Action Team.
Hausia was the highest polling unsuccessful candidate and his vote even rose a little from 2022, but he didn’t come close to winning. The Action Team candidates – Kunal Bhalla, Kushma Nair, Sandeep Saini and Paramjeet Singh – all received 1200 to 2000 more votes than him.
The police have “opened an investigation”, but the petition in the Manukau District Court is separate from that.
The court heard evidence, tabled by Ofsoske, that 79 votes were “irregularly” cast.
Vi Hausia, former deputy chair of the Ōtara-Papatoetoe Local Board, who increased his vote but still lost his seat.
Hausia’s lawyer, Simon Mitchell KC, said some of those 79 were in the name of people who have declared they didn’t vote, suggesting someone else used their papers.
And 53 of them were from people who declared they did not receive voting papers, so notified the election office and were able to cast a special vote. When the special votes were counted, it was discovered that ordinary votes had already been lodged in their name. Of those 53, 50 had gone to candidates from the Action Team.
The ordinary votes cast in these names were discounted, which caused the Action Team’s final votes to go down.
A public notice providing details of the Papatoetoe subdivision election will be published on the council website on December 31.
Voting papers will be sent to enrolled electors in the Papatoetoe subdivision of the Ōtara-Papatoetoe Local Board from March 9, with voting open for one month.
More to come
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