Rush of local body election nominations hoped for as the deadline approaches

Nominations for local elections close on Friday. Photo / Laura Smith

A lack of contest in the race for this year's local government elections so far has raised concerns roles could be left unfilled.

But the electoral officer for several Bay of Plenty councils contests this and says things will get busy by Friday.

Nominations for local body elections close at midday Friday, and Local Government NZ (LGNZ) is worried roles will go uncontested or vacant unless more candidates throw their hats in the ring.

The entity is an advocate for local democracy and councils can become members.

It said last election had the lowest number of nominations in relation to available seats since it began collecting data, but this year could be even lower.

President Stuart Crosby said competition for seats was a sign of a healthy democracy.

In 2019 there were on average two candidates for every vacant seat.

"But this time around, many of our councils face the prospect of uncontested appointments, especially those outside of the big cities."

Local Government NZ president Stuart Crosby is concerned about low nominations for the local body elections. Photo / File

Its national council member and young elected members committee co-chair Lan Pham said it was not uncommon to see a "flurry of nominations" on the morning of the closure, especially for mayoral candidates.

This was what Bay of Plenty Regional Council and Rotorua Lakes Council's electoral officer Warwick Lampp said would happen.

"It will be really busy."

He expected, although numbers were low on Wednesday afternoon, activity would pick up in the next two days.

As of this morning, there were gaps on both Rotorua community boards as well as on the Māori ward.

A spokesperson for Rotorua Lakes Council said historically, it was not unusual for the council to receive a late burst of nominations in the 24 hours prior to the deadline for submissions.

"Should we end up in a position where we have unfilled roles, LGNZ has a process that must be followed by any council in this instance."

For Taupō, there were no nominations for its Mangakino-Pouakani Ward and there were two wards with nominations the same as vacancies.

In Ōpōtiki, there were vacancies in council and community board positions.

Interim chief executive Miles McConway expected to get "quite a few more" seats confirmed before the deadline.

"This year does seem a little lighter than in previous years and there are probably many reasons for that."

He said it was important to local democracy that councils are made up of a representative cross-section of their communities.

"If you see any gaps and you think you can fill them then please consider standing."

Western Bay of Plenty District Council had received no nominations for one of its community boards and was short for four of them.

Chief executive John Holyoake said it was looking good for its mayoralty and councillor seats but community boards were light on nominations, where it needed to fill 20 seats in total.

"It's too soon to predict whether any seats will be left vacant, nor can we predict the final number of nominations.

"Obviously we are seeing the traditional last-minute run of nominations and encourage anyone on the fence to give it a go and stand. There is still time to stand and make a difference.

"It doesn't matter who you are, where you live or what your background is – we've all got unique lived experiences that are the key to understanding the diverse needs of our district."

Of Whakatāne District Council's six community boards, two had no nominations.

Deputy electoral officer Cindy Butt said it was not unlike other councils across Aotearoa that were experiencing lower numbers of nominations coming through.

"That said, we currently have five candidates running for the position of mayor.
"At the other end of the spectrum, we have some community boards that need more nominations."

She said she was hopeful that people across its rohe who were considering standing for one of the positions available "act quickly".

In Kawerau, there was one mayoral nomination and seven council nominations. Eight were needed.

Kawerau District Council posted to social media: "We know there's still plenty of nominations to come in, and our advice is not to leave it until the final day. You could miss out altogether if a mistake on your nomination form can't be fixed in time."

The Bay of Plenty Regional Council had one constituency with no nominations and two with nominations being the same as vacancies.

A spokesperson said, in any constituency, if the number of candidates does not exceed the number of vacancies, those nominated will be declared elected, as occurred in the 2019 elections in its Eastern Bay, Tauranga, and Ōkurei constituencies.

If there are fewer nominations than seats to be filled, the nominated candidates will be declared elected and the remaining vacancy will be considered an extraordinary vacancy.

This will trigger a further election process to fill any vacant seats.

LGNZ's Crosby said there were several barriers to people wanting to stand for local government politics including pay, workload and "some of the ugly rhetoric directed at elected officials".

It was aware of these challenges and said it continued to advocate for change. He said after it raised the need to do more to protect candidates, the Government made changes to the Local Electoral Act to remove the requirement for candidates to publish their residential addresses.