Preliminary result
24,468 - Kerry Prendergast
24,428 - Celia Wade-Brown
(Final count begins today)
Wellington mayor-elect Kerry Prendergast says it's business as usual for the next three days, as she and neck-and-neck rival Celia Wade-Brown face a nail-biting wait for up to 963 special votes to be counted to decide the capital's mayoralty by Wednesday.
Ms Prendergast led Ms Wade-Brown by just 40 votes yesterday, one of the closest results ever in Wellington, said the electoral officer.
"I'm still the mayor-elect, so I've been at a couple of things today ... and I've got a full day tomorrow and tonight, so I'll just carry on until I get the results," Ms Prendergast said.
She said running for a fourth term was always going to be difficult.
"It was always going to be tough when you're the mayor and you're doing your job and people are able to draw the resources together to do door-knocking," she said, referring to Ms Wade-Brown's campaign.
While she got to all the election meetings, she often arrived late and had to leave early for other commitments, she said.
Wellington electoral officer Ross Bly said special votes included people who had moved, spoiled their papers or were unable to meet the deadline.
There had been 963 papers issued, but not all had come back or on time, he said.
"Because it's so close, we're making sure ... We're doing a very thorough job."
Local Government NZ's governance manager Mike Reid said Ms Prendergast had not been as confident as many commentators, despite polls putting her in the lead during the week leading up to the election.
"We all expected her to romp in, but she actually had a better feel for how the mood was going ... She kept saying 'I'm not so sure'."
She's actually had to be really busy on her job, he said, and she hasn't had the opportunity to actual connect with people as she would like to have done. It's one of the problems, being an incumbent."
- NZPA
