Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Auckland candidate accused of forging election papers

Updated at 6:46 pm on 8 October 2010

A super city candidate accused of forging local body election papers is denying any wrongdoing and says he will not pull out of the race.

Daljit Singh was charged with forgery on Tuesday but his identity has been suppressed until Friday afternoon.

He is one of two men charged with forging change of address forms to falsely enrol voters in Papatoetoe.

Authorities removed the names of more than 300 people from the electoral roll after it was discovered they did not live at the houses stated.

Mr Singh is a Labour candidate in the Papatoetoe sub-division of the Otara- Papatoetoe board. He is also a Justice of the Peace and marriage celebrant.

He says he is not pulling out of the election race and still has supporters willing to back him.

Although confident of getting elected, Mr Singh says door-to-door inquiries by police have put people off voting for him and believes the investigation may have cost him more than 1000 votes.

The other man jointly charged with forgery has name suppression. Police say both men face further charges and other people could also be charged.

Labour Party president Andrew Little says Mr Singh will be expelled from the party if he is convicted.

Listen to Checkpoint interview with Daljit Singh

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