Letters: Election reaction continues

Dr Reynold Macpherson misses out on the Rotorua mayoralty. He speaks with one of his supporters after Saturday's election result. PHOTO/STEPHEN PARKER

Reynold Macpherson writes in an attempt to analyse his defeat at our recent elections (Letters, October 10).

It seems to me he blames others but not himself.

He suggests that his demise was caused by Rob Kent and Mark Gould, and implies that if they had stood aside he would have got in.

Mr Macpherson lost because most voters did not want him to be mayor.

The RDRR group has campaigned for more than a year, and in my view failed.

Our new council is far from the lame-duck teetering on the edge of paralysis that he suggests. And I cannot be but astounded about his comment regarding the predictability of voting as council moves on.

His wish was that he and his six colleagues would be now sitting in council, happily voting as a majority block. How predictable is that?

And as to democracy, we have two new boards which will soon take their place on the council's committees, and in all probability, casting votes as well.

Mr Macpherson surely must understand this. Will he then complain about these un-elected representatives as well?

[Abridged]
JOHN PAKES
Rotorua
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Ryan Gray (Letters October 11) and others have asked me to be more gracious in defeat, to accept that the mayor's co-governance model has been approved, and not to blame Rob Kent for splitting the anti-Chadwick vote.

Why should anyone be gracious about losing their birth right to democracy? My tupuna and countless others fought and died for all to enjoy this birth right. I served in Cyprus and East Timor. It is a human right guaranteed in law. So why be gracious when one community of interest is made 'more equal than others'?

The mayor's co-governance model was not specifically approved because people voted as they did for many reasons. She did not put her co-governance model to a referendum.

Vote switching illustrated vote splitting. There was a 24 per cent swing against the mayor, her 11630 votes dropping to 8808, from 58 per cent of votes cast to 41 per cent. And where did Chadwick's 2013 majority of 6841 and Kevin Winters' 4789 votes switch to in 2016? They split into 6082 votes for me, 3290 to Kent and 1756 to Mark Gould.

Kent and Gould were both pre-warned by the RDRR but in my opinion chose to ignore the dangers of vote splitting.

I will analyse RDRR's degrees of success elsewhere.

[Abridged]
REYNOLD MACPHERSON
Rotorua District Residents and Ratepayersrs