{"id":43233,"date":"2025-09-25T21:07:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T21:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/43233\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T21:07:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T21:07:10","slug":"allegations-of-election-tampering-against-waikato-candidate-fabio-rodrigues-referred-to-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/43233\/","title":{"rendered":"Allegations of election tampering against Waikato candidate Fabio Rodrigues referred to police"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was also alleged that he put his own flyers into the PO boxes while placing mail in them on behalf of NZ Post.<\/p>\n

Election Services, which oversees the Waikato District Council election, said it had forwarded the allegations to police.<\/p>\n

Police declined to comment, citing privacy concerns.<\/p>\n

Rodrigues categorically denied the allegations, claiming they were a part of a \u201csmear campaign\u201d against him.<\/p>\n

He confirmed he handled mail as part of his role, but denied using his position for any wrongdoing. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe can have disagreements, but we don\u2019t have to ruin people\u2019s livelihoods like what is happening.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really don\u2019t care what my other opponents think, right? I care what the people think. I care what my voters think and the people who are struggling … that\u2019s what I\u2019m worried about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GASGAS P\u014dkeno, where the sign dispute erupted.<\/p>\n

The race for a seat in the Tuakau-P\u014dkeno general ward has already been steeped in controversy, with violence allegedly erupting between Rodrigues and the husband of one of his rivals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His relationship with candidate Bronwyn Heath has soured throughout the campaign, and it came to a head earlier this month outside the GAS P\u014dkeno.<\/p>\n

Rodrigues said he\u2019d sought approval from the landowner to erect his hoardings at the site, but claimed Heath had \u201cabsolutely no permission\u201d to put signs there.<\/p>\n

When Heath arrived with her husband to place signs beneath his, Rodrigues claims a \u201cback and forth\u201d argument ensued.<\/p>\n

Heath told the Herald she did have permission for the signs. She claimed Rodrigues came out of the petrol station and accosted the couple in a \u201chighly aggressive confrontational manner\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of returning to the GAS station, he continued to relentlessly harass me to stop me from getting the sign up,\u201d Heath claimed in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n

She claims he was repeatedly asked to back off, but wouldn\u2019t \u2013 an accusation that Rodrigues denies.<\/p>\n

CCTV video provided to the Herald shows an exchange between Rodrigues and an older man, who drops something to the ground before his head appears to make contact with Rodrigues. <\/p>\n

Heath said her husband, whom she describes as a \u201c67-year-old man with medical issues\u201d, was acting in \u201cself-defence\u201d and was \u201cfearful for our safety\u201d.<\/p>\n

Rodrigues said he immediately called the police, who confirmed they attended the scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolice were called to a commercial premises on Great South Rd, P\u014dkeno, about 1.40pm after a report of an assault,\u201d police said.<\/p>\n

Rodrigues said he has been left feeling shocked, scared and dizzy, and claimed he had to be checked out by a doctor friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 19 years old, for God\u2019s sake. I\u2019m just trying to make the betterment of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was also alleged that he put his own flyers into the PO boxes while placing mail in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9092,26676,19956,5903,38536,38539,111,43,139,69,1118,675,38538,38537,1321,38535,61,1524,4741],"class_list":["post-43233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-against","tag-allegations","tag-candidate","tag-election","tag-fabio","tag-levelled","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-police","tag-referred","tag-rodrigues","tag-services","tag-tampering","tag-to","tag-waikato","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}