Hawke's Bay Elections: Tararua's mayor is back

Tracey Collis has romped home.

Tracey Collis has romped home to win a second term as Tararua Mayor, beating her two challengers by a huge majority.

Collis gained 4831 of the votes while James Harold polled 290 and Mitch McHardy 255.

Collis said she was absolutely thrilled with the result.

"It's been a huge honour and I have really loved serving the district for the last three years. I can't wait to drive us forward."

Collis said the result was a clear mandate that she had the district behind her.

"We can now keep moving forward. We have some exciting opportunities ahead and we now have the stability that means with the new highway and the growth that will occur through that to power ahead."

From the initial results it would appear Tararua District will have a strong female representation with six women councillors and two men leading the vote count.

There are likely to be two new faces representing the northern ward in Erana Peeti-Webber, who topped the poll with 1704 votes, and Sharon Wards who gained the third highest number with 1217 votes.

Kerry Sutherland was second highest poller with 1273 votes and Carole Isaacson came in fourth with 1076.

At this stage Shirley Hull, Alison Franklin and Peter Johns look to have retained their seats representing the southern with newcomer Raylene Treder gaining the most votes with 1589. Hull received 1423. Franklin 1301 and Johns 1219.

Collis said the early results for the council seats was an unusual one for Tararua which had never had a 50/50 split between male and female councillors.

"These are just the early results and things could change as the voting is very close. But it is exciting to see two young women in Erana and Raylene polling so well."

Collis said the voting return was 44.73 per cent which would change as special cotes were counted.

"I want to see the return at 50 per cent. It's personal for me as the higher the return the more connected you are to the community."