National’s Mahesh Muralidhar is giving Green Party’s star MP Chloe Swarbrick a run for her money in Auckland Central, latest polls suggest.
Swarbrick is barely ahead of the Kiwi-Indian tech entrepreneur, and within the margin of error, in a Taxpayers’ Union-Curia electorate poll released September 26, 2023.
The race for the heart of Auckland is too close to call now with the poll indicating 26 per cent electorate votes for Swarbrick, 24 per cent for Muralidhar, and nearly a third of the electors still undecided which way they will swing.
Labour's Oscar Sims is trailing a distant 12 points behind Muralidhar, who told The Indian Weekender the poll “tells us what he has been hearing from the voters”.
“As the survey shows, crime is the top problem in the electroate. Kiwis from all walks of life have the opportunity to get our country back on track. But they must come out to vote.”
Muralidhar pointed out the voters, many of them Asians, must make sure they have their say on the voting day.
“It’s really important that all residency visa holders, permanent residents and citizens from all communities cast their vote.”
The Taxpayers' Union-Curia poll had a sample size of 500 due to the lower voting population when polling for an electorate compared to the whole country.
It was similar to the methodology the outfit has used for its other electorate polls, like in Ilam and Northland, but means there is a higher margin of error, of +/- 4.9 per cent at the 95 per cent confidence interval.
This and the fact it is a single poll rather than a trend makes it less reliable than the nationwide polling. But it's still a good early barometer on how the campaigns are going.
Muralidhar was among the founding team of the popular graphic design platform Canva, and has been mentoring young entrepreneurs in New Zealand lately.
He is vying to reclaim Auckland Central, an electorate National held from 2008 to 2020, but lost to the Greens in the last election.
Muralidhar belongs to the southern Indian state of Kerala, but has been on the move since he was a teenager.
He studied in Singapore and New Zealand; and worked in Japan and Australia before returning to Auckland to settle down, a city he calls home.
“Auckland Central is the gem of New Zealand. I'm biased, but I think economically it is a strong argument to make. If Auckland Central is not winning, New Zealand's not winning,” Muralidhar told The Indian Weekender earlier in the election season.
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