Majority win for McAnulty in MLT race

VICTOR: Kieran McAnulty is the Masterton Licensing Trust's newest member after his byelection victory. PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

Kieran McAnulty has secured the vacant seat on the Masterton Licensing Trust, with a clear majority over Craig Roberts.

Preliminary results for the byelection, released yesterday afternoon, showed Mr McAnulty received a total of 2909 votes, 314 more than Mr Roberts.

Voter return was 30 per cent, with a total of 5523 votes cast, excluding special votes.

Six special votes were still awaiting verification and 19 blank or invalid voting papers were received.

The Wairarapa Labour Party candidate in 2014, Mr McAnulty will fill the seat left vacant by the death of previous trust chairman, Craig Cooper, in October last year.

The Masterton Licensing Trust owns 75 per cent of Trust House, which owns properties and hospitality businesses around Wairarapa and provides community grants. Mr McAnulty said it was an honour to be elected.

"I worked very closely with Craig over the years and, at a personal level, it is a great honour to have been selected to continue his work on the trust."

He was also delighted to receive the support of the Masterton community.

"My campaign slogan was 'your voice on the Trust' - which is exactly what I intend to be. Once established in this new role my first priority will be to work with the other trustees and management of Trust House to see how we can establish better engagement with the Masterton community.

"It is essential the community's views are known so that better decisions can be made on their behalf."

It had been a spirited campaign, not a negative one, he said.

"We each took very different approaches to this campaign, but were never negative towards each other, which is great. And given Mr Roberts received a good amount of support, I think it is only right that the trust takes on board some of the messages that he was promoting."

The final by-election count was expected by the end of today.