Nándor Tánczos asks people to stop tagging opposition candidate's election signs

Tánczos took to Facebook with a video showing graffiti on one of Whakatāne Mayor Judy Turner's signs. Photo / Supplied

Whakatāne mayoral candidate Nándor Tánczos has asked people to stop making alterations to his opposing candidates' election signs on his behalf.

Tánczos took to Facebook with a video showing graffiti on one of Whakatāne Mayor Judy Turner's signs. Someone had crossed out her name with black marker pen and written "Nándor" in its place.

"Please don't do this," he says in the video. "There's a couple of reasons. The first one is I'm a real believer in the basic rule of life, which is treat other people as you would have them treat you, and I'd be really annoyed if someone did this to my own billboards.

"The second thing is, if you're trying to get me votes, it's going to make people less likely, not more likely to vote for me. Because this kind of stuff just annoys people.

"If you want to support me as mayor, don't go and graffiti other people's billboards. Go out and talk to your friends, talk to your whānau, make sure they're enrolled to vote, make sure that they're going to vote. Just korero."

He told the Whakatane Beacon he had heard several candidates' signs had been defaced in this way, including Lesley Immink's, Turner's, and Julie Jukes' signs.

"I'm going to get some acetone and see if I can take it off," he said yesterday. However, he later said that when he got there someone had already cleaned it off.

His own signs had been graffitied as well, but he said it was something that was to be expected.

"I've had a few of mine defaced as well. I've had people just go to town on my face. They can't draw moustaches on me, of course, but they find other things to do. It happens every time."

-Public Interest Journalism funded by NZ on Air