Supporters of Banks come to the party

John Banks. Photo / Greg Bowker.

John Banks is making a strong finish for the Super City mayoralty, but there is quiet confidence in the Len Brown camp about a win in tomorrow's leadership contest.

In the past few days, postal voting returns have shown a big lift in Mr Banks' strongholds of Auckland City and North Shore, while the returns in Mr Brown's stronghold of Manukau have stalled.

Mr Banks' supporters in these two cities appear to have heeded his call to vote in big numbers, particularly on the North Shore, where returns have risen by 45 per cent in three days.

The average returns across Auckland are 34.6 per cent - and 26 per cent in Manukau.

With one-and-a-half days of voting and counting left until polls close at midday tomorrow, the final vote is expected to be well over 50 per cent.

Yesterday, Mr Banks was dealing at the Auckland Coroner's Court with the actions of his son Alex, who encouraged alcohol-poisoning victim James Webster to drink.

But there is a positive feeling in his camp about the increased voter turnout and a belief that the contest is going down to the wire.

If the final result is close, Mr Banks' team and his Citizens & Ratepayers' allies will be watching the outcome in the local board where a candidate has been charged with forging voting papers, for a possible judicial inquiry.

This could lead to the local board, Auckland Council ward contest or even the mayoral contest being annulled and a fresh election held.

Mr Brown believed he was on track for victory tomorrow, but was still focused on getting people out to vote in record numbers.

After a long campaign that started 14 months ago, he used a rugby analogy to say: "I have left the whole lot on the field. I have nothing more to give."

Former Labour Party president Mike Williams said Mr Banks' campaign was nothing short of a shambles and had been heavily out-gunned by Mr Brown.

"While many predicted division on the left side of the race, the reverse happened, with Banks bleeding a possibly crucial 10 per cent of the conservative vote to Colin Craig," he said.

Mr Williams said Mr Banks' criticism of South Auckland last week, a quarter of the vote he was supposed to be wooing, was an act of desperation with an element of "Paul Henry".

"He has got sky- high negatives and what he should have done on the campaign was shown a gentler kind of John Banks, which is what he was doing before the campaign," Mr Williams said.

Right-leaning commentator David Farrar lamented the lack of different plans, visions and policies for Auckland by the mayoral candidates and political tickets. It was difficult to know before tomorrow the political make-up of the Auckland Council, he said.

Citizens & Ratepayers president John Slater was bullish about the right-leaning ticket's chances, predicting it would win 10 or 11 seats on the 20-member council.

C&R is standing 14 candidates, has endorsed independent Alex Swney in Waitemata & Gulf and has made "arrangements" with two or three others.

Mr Slater's confidence was not shared by City Vision chairman Robert Gallagher, who did not want to pick any winners among the left-leaning ticket's team of Cathy Casey, Glenda Fryer, Richard Northey and independent Mike Lee - all standing for the Auckland Council.