OpenBrief
Log in Sign up
Elections / 2026 / Dunedin / David Bainbridge-Zafar
D
2026 general election
Standing for Dunedin

David Bainbridge-Zafar

Kind
Electorate only
Source
elections-wikipedia
As of
9 Jun 2026

Background

Research run #163 · 7 May 2026
Every claim below traces to a verbatim quote in the cited source. Click any footnote [1] in the prose, or expand the citation index below, to see where the fact came from.

David Bainbridge-Zafar is a candidate for The Opportunity Party [22] contesting the Dunedin electorate [16][19].

According to a single reputable secondary source, Bainbridge-Zafar holds an MBA with a focus on infrastructure asset management [14]. His professional background spans several public sector organisations. He is reported to have held a senior role at Dunedin City Council, including a position as Group Manager of Property Services [1][8], where he is said to have been involved in overseeing the New Dunedin Hospital build [5]. He is also reported to have held a senior role at Health NZ [9] and to have managed complex infrastructure projects more broadly [4].

According to a single reputable secondary source, Bainbridge-Zafar has held roles at Gore District Council, including as General Manager Operations [17] and as a senior infrastructure leader [7], with a council manager role also attributed to him there [2][6].

Beyond his professional career, he is reported to have served in several civic capacities, including as Chair of the Dunedin Fringe Arts Trust [10], as a board member of Habitat for Humanity [11], and as a board member of Presbyterian Support Otago [12]. According to a single reputable secondary source, he also organised a cricket match between Dunedin City Council and the Dunedin Bangladesh Community in March 2021 [13].

Bainbridge-Zafar is affiliated with The Opportunity Party [22] and, according to a single reputable secondary source, is listed as a candidate for the Dunedin electorate from 2026 [16][21].

Generated 27 May 2026 · model claude-sonnet-4-6
AI-generated biography. Assembled by an LLM from public sources (Wikipedia, parliament register, Beehive, news archives). Every claim is backed by a verbatim quote in one of the cited sources below and tagged confirmed, unverified, or disputed by corroboration. Use as a starting reference, not a final source — cross-check anything load-bearing.
1 confirmed 21 unverified 0 disputed
Verify the bio — expand the citation index 22 sourced claims

Education

Career

Political offices

  • [15]
    Held the office of Candidate for Opportunity (Dunedin). unverified
  • [16]
    Held the office of Candidate for the Dunedin electorate (from 2026). unverified
  • [17]
    Held the office of General Manager Operations of Gore District Council. unverified
  • [18]
    Held the office of Opportunity Party candidate for Dunedin. unverified
  • [19]
    Held the office of candidate for Dunedin electorate seat. unverified

Party affiliation

Civic roles & honours

Looked for, not found

  • No public record found confirming David Bainbridge-Zafar's specific educational qualifications (e.g. University of Otago Doctorate in Business Administration, Open University Post Grad Certificate) from a verifiable primary source — LinkedIn was blocked and ZoomInfo/RocketReach are not independently fetchable.
  • No public primary-source record of David Bainbridge-Zafar's rugby coaching role could be independently verified beyond candidate profile text on opportunity.org.nz.

The agent checked these topics across the allowed public sources but could not find verbatim-quotable evidence. Absence doesn't rule the fact out — it just means no journalist-accessible source covered it at run time.