In 1935, elections were held for the Mayor of Auckland plus other local government positions including twenty-one city councillors.

Sayegh was viewed a respectable individual and competent city councillor, but most gave him little chance of beating Citizens Committee candidate Ernest Davis.

[3] Councillor Ted Phelan had earlier declined to seek the Labour nomination for mayor, citing a conflict of interest, as he was also running the Hotel Auckland (which was owned by Davis), who had already declared his candidacy.

[4] The main talking point following the election was that the Labour Party had won a majority on the city council winning 15 of the 21 seats.

There was also a huge turnout in voters with a record 60.36% of electors casting their votes, much higher than usual, an increase of nearly 12% from the 1933 election.