A panicked postie has been sacked for dumping about 400 voting packs meant for Mangere voters ahead of this weekend's Auckland supercity election.
An internal investigation found the postie did not deliver the packs destined for eight Mangere streets last month, New Zealand Post confirmed to NZPA in a statement today.
Postal services chief executive Peter Fenton said the new on-call postie had panicked over the amount of mail to be delivered.
Instead of seeking assistance, the postie put the voting packs out in rubbish bags for collection.
Mr Fenton said it was initially believed that all undelivered packs had been recovered and re-delivered, but new information received this week indicated more packs may have been disposed of than originally thought.
The incident follows the suspension of a Rotorua postie last month, who was believed to have disposed of 200 items of mail, including voting packs.
New Zealand Post apologised for the inconvenience caused to customers.
"The actions of this individual are deeply disappointing as being a postie is a high-trust job and we have a zero tolerance for failure to deliver," Mr Fenton said.
The incident was "a real blow to posties", who had worked hard to deliver 2.95 million election packs on time around the country - covering elections in 67 territorial authorities, 10 regional councils and 20 District Health Boards.
Residents believed to be affected were being contacted and advised on how to contact the local electoral office to arrange for special declaration voting packs or to make arrangements to vote in person.
