Bare-faced cheek as yobs target election billboards

Alastair Scott stands in place of where his face was cut out of a billboard.

Vandals appear to want to be really close to the National party, stealing John Key and Wairarapa candidate Alastair Scott's faces from a hoarding.

VANDALISED: Wairarapa Labour candidate Keiran McAnulty has been turned into a smoking elf on his hoarding.

The faces from a billboard at the roundabout on the corner of Upper Plain and Ngaumutawa Rds in Masterton have been neatly cut out of the political hoardings and removed. Along with stealing the two National Party faces someone has turned Labour candidate Kieran McAnulty into a smoking elf. But the Conservative Party's signage of Colin Craig hasn't been touched.

Mr Scott said it was annoying a "clown" had damaged the hoardings.

"It's ridiculous ... nuisance value more than anything. Some delinquent has decided to have a bit of fun. It's just an idle idiot," he said.

He's not sure why they'd want to remove the faces though.

"Someone's collecting the faces ... Is there a masquerade ball coming up? Maybe they will turn up there."

Not many of the 150 National Party hoardings in the region have been targeted by vandals so far during this campaign.

"Someone scribbled on the one in Woodville but nothing else."

Damage to election signage is an occupational hazard for candidates.

Vandals have destroyed Wanganui MP Chester Borrows' sign twice so far and Labour's Napier candidate, Stuart Nash's fire engine was spray painted by "incompetent fools" recently.

Others throughout the country have also been tagged or destroyed.