Mr Park engaged legal firm Cavell Leitch to express his concerns around the city council-run Facebook page ‘Lianne Dalziel Christchurch Mayor’ having a link to Ms Dalziel’s campaign website.
“The inclusion of campaign material on a Christchurch City Council social media account may give the impression that the council is promoting Ms Dalziel ahead of all other mayoral candidates,” Cavell Leitch said in a letter to city council electoral officer Jo Daly.
In response to the letter, Ms Daly said the existence of the link to Ms Dalziel’s campaign website had gone unnoticed by the city council and had since been removed.
She also agreed the links from the city council-run Facebook page to Ms Dalziel’s campaign website could be seen as inconsistent with the protocol that refrains city council social media accounts from promoting candidates.
Mr Park would not talk to The Star yesterday about the matter.
But his campaign manager David Lynch said: “We acknowledge that the council has accepted that there were significant infringements and we appreciate that the mayor has made some attempt to address some of those infringements. However, we believe some of them have not been resolved and we remain in discussion with the council around this.”
Mr Lynch would not say what the unresolved infringements were.
Ms Dalziel’s campaign manager Aaron Campbell said the infringement was “minor.”
“If it was serious I think she [Jo Daly] would be taking further action,” he said.
