Qiulae Wong’s fun run bib and other enormous scandals from Election 2026

The most ridiculous gaffes, flubs and controversies of the campaign

At times, Election 2026 has felt like a campaign in search of a narrative. The polls have shown largely the same results for months with only minor movement at the margins. There hasn’t been any huge revelation or news scoop to tilt the balance of the election.

News that Nicky Hager would release a new book caused an excited frenzy among political obsessives, but Dirty Work didn’t contain the kind of campaign-defining revelations found in some of his previous work. The revelations that candidates from the Greens, Te Pāti Māori and Labour had taken campaign photos with Mongrel Mob members caused a brief spiral of lefties deciding all it was so over and rightwingers declaring they were so back. However, the story seemed to blow over after more photos came out of National MPs with gang members, albeit in quite different situations, and the polls remained unchanged. 

That all changed on Sunday when the Opportunity Party posted a photo online of leader Qiulae Wong at the finish line of the Auckland Marathon 11km Traverse fun run. Independent journalist Penny Marie immediately spotted something fishy: Wong’s hair didn’t seem very sweaty for someone who had just finished a running race, and her bib number was registered to a different person.

“Qiulae Wong and the Opportunity should front up to explain this. Are they telling the truth? Are they telling a lie?” Marie demanded. Her online posts spread quickly among conspiracy-minded social media users, convinced that Opportunity had pulled some kind of bait-and-switch to trick voters into thinking their leader ran 11km. If any of them had thought to check Wong’s Instagram page, they’d have noticed a stream of selfies and videos from Wong documenting her run over the harbour bridge.

Opportunity clarified that Wong had purchased a race entry from someone who was no longer able to attend, even though the deadline to transfer registrations had already passed – a faux pas that will surely cost the party among the significant pool of voters who rank the ethics of fun run participation as their top issue. 

As Opportunity continues to deal with the fallout of this scandal, let's look back at some of the least consequential snafus, fracas and gaffes from this election campaign. 

WOF-gate

Less than 24 hours after bib-gate, Opportunity faced another registration-related scandal. Social media users, including NZ First Rotorua candidate Billy Brown, ran the Opportunity Party’s campaign van through online license plate checkers and discovered that it didn’t have a current WOF. The party subsequently took the van off the road. 

The Greens join with foreign actors… or not

National MP Todd McClay accused the Green Party of "joining with foreign actors to attack New Zealand" over a complaint lodged with the European Commission by a Dutch environmental group Both ENDS, which alleges New Zealand has broken the climate commitments in its free trade agreement with the EU. The Greens quickly denied any involvement and Luxon walked back his minister’s claim. McClay never admitted the cause of the error, but some online sleuths speculated that he may have mistaken Green MP Francisco Hernandez with Both ENDS campaigner Fernando Hernandez Espino.

Ill-informed hobbits

NZ First deputy leader Shane Jones called two protestors “ill-informed hobbits” after they interrupted a public meeting in Gisborne – which some might say was a pretty good description of the median New Zealand voter. 

An Opportunity to support National

Opportunity deputy leader Daniel Eb told an interviewer that he may vote for National if his own party wasn’t an option. It’s generally a bad idea for candidates to advocate openly for another party, especially given Opportunity’s brand as independent centrists that aren’t tied to either side. But to be fair to Eb, anyone would have struggled under the brutal interrogation he received from 13-year-old Kea Kids News reporter Patrick Hammond. 

An attack on an attack campaign

National’s Tamaki candidate Mahesh Muralidhar made headlines after admitting that he liked “some” of Labour’s small business policies. That kind of bipartisan open mindedness is completely unacceptable in an attack campaign run by Simeon Brown. 

Thirst traps

Green Party candidate Tania Waikato encouraged young Māori to enrol to vote by posting a series of Instagram “thirst traps” (swimsuit pictures submitted by her supporters). Not to be outdone, NZ First’s Wigram candidate Bryce Park proudly popped off his shirt and did some muscle-ups to promote his party’s healthcare policy. 

Hipkins has room to improve

Labour MP Helen White sparked headlines when, during The Spinoff’s Great Mt Albert Debate, she rated her party leader Chris Hipkins’ performance a nine out of 10. Every other candidate on stage gave their leaders a perfect 10 out of 10 with all the conviction of a Pyongyang newsreader. Hipkins didn’t seem particularly fazed by his score, saying “there’s always room for improvement”. 

Wahs vs Tahs 

Christopher Luxon briefly mixed up his rugby teams, throwing his support behind the “Waratahs” (the New South Wales Waratahs rugby union team) rather than the “Warriors” (the New Zealand rugby league team). He immediately realised the error and corrected himself on the spot, but social media users had already deemed his fandom fraudulent. 

Fake fears of fake supporters

Ahead of a planned walkaround with Luxon on Auckland’s Tamaki Drive, the National Party emailed volunteers telling them “Please don’t wear blue. You are there to engage organically”. It immediately drew comparisons to Judith Collins’ poorly staged walkaround in Ponsonby in 2020. The rumours of a repeat flamed out when most of the supporters who showed up wore National party rosettes anyway. 

Thank u, next

When a dairy farmer complained to Luxon about the rising cost of supplies, he told her to “just be thankful for something” because “you’re making record returns under a National government”. It’s unclear which of Luxon’s policies are responsible for the global increase in commodity milk and meat prices. 

Shoot, shag, marry

Act candidate Paul Henry said he would choose to shoot Chris Hipkins while playing a game of shoot/shag/marry on Radio Hauraki. Labour MP Ayesha Verrall claimed it amounted to a “death threat” and Hipkins said “Paul Henry should know better”. If we’re going to take Henry at his literal word on this, the media probably should have asked more about his stated desire to shag Winston Peters. 

It’s a dog-eat-bird world 

A dog ate a dead bird and then licked Chris Hipkins’ face.