A mayoral candidate who spread misinformation and conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 vaccine also lied about winning an Emmy Award, and said she helped a woman who had failed to conceive with IVF become pregnant through meditation.

Make-up artist Kalaadevi Ananda, previously known as Marilyn Carbone, is standing for the position of Rotorua Mayor.

She is one of seven candidates in the race for the role, including former Olympian Ben Sandford, former NZ First MP Fletcher Tabuteau, councillors Tania Tapsell, Raj Kumar and Reynold Macpherson, and businesswoman Rania Sears.

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On Ananda’s current Linkedin profile, which was recently updated to declare her candidacy, she described herself as “standing for Mayor of Rotorua” and as an “Emmy Award-winning Hollywood Makeup Film Designer, Yoga and Meditation Instructor”.

Under the awards section in her profile, she includes an Emmy award for the television movie When a Stranger Calls Back, which she said was issued in January 1993.

In her candidacy launch statement to media, she also described herself as an Emmy award-winning businesswoman.

However, when someone queried this with the Rotorua Daily Post, Ananda retracted her statement and said that she had won a...

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