Pro-Māori ward sign only vandalism target

The lead up to Marlborough’s local elections has left electoral signs predominantly unharmed, with one exception seeing three cases of vandalism.

The sign in Redwoodtown, originally saying “Say yes to Māori wards”, was reading “Say āe Māori Wards” as of the Friday before local body elections after three cases of vandalism on September 24, October 1 and October 8.

The first case of vandalism was with green spray paint, having the sign changed to read “Say no”, before having the sign then covered up twice by a cream/white paint where the container and gloves used were left at the sign.

Marlborough District Council Electoral Officer Dean Heiford told the Marlborough Weekly that as of Friday morning, no election candidates had reported any reports of damage.

“The lovely thing out of these three occasions is whenever I was out on the street re-painting it, people would stop and support either seeing if they could help or with kind words”, says resident and re-painter Gabe Bertogg.

“The first time it happened we had local rangatahi come over and help re-paint it, then the second time a family who would come past each day stopped in.

“Supporting the top of the South having the only council’s to still have Māori wards is important, and by Marlborough District Council’s own admission they overwhelmingly appreciate what our current Marlborough Māori ward councillor Allanah Burgess has been bringing to the table.

“A local friend of ours who’s now living in Australia visited, and we drove across to Nelson and saw signs for this campaign from the other side.

"They live in Australia now, and they saw the value in having an indigenous voice at the local decision-making level as so incredible to have in their hometown”.

By electoral law all local body election signs need to be taken down or covered up by midnight on Friday, the day before election day.