Uninspiring election billboards have been panned by a design expert, who described them as more suited to wallpaper designs than vote-snaggers.

Now the work really starts - it's time for our new leaders to enrol in How To Be A Mayor 101 and head back to school.

Justin Lester was getting a haircut when he took the phone call telling him he had won the race to become Wellington mayor.

COMMENT: If you haven't voted in local body elections, don't beat yourself up. It shows you're smart enough to have worked out whole exercise is a joke.

COMMENT: Wondering what to do with your new mayor now they've been elected? Paul Little makes some suggestions.

Congratulations to all the new mayors, councillors and members of local and community boards elected in cities and districts around the country yesterday.

The race for Hamilton's top job proved one of the tightest, with progress results suggesting the mayoralty had swung by a whisker to underdog Andrew King.

Can online voting turn around our dreadful local body election voter turnout?

Former Air NZ bosses could be installed in Auckland Council to rebuild public confidence in the failed institution, says new Auckland Mayor Phil Goff.

Three current Napier City councillors - Mark Herbert, Mark Hamilton and Michelle Pyke - appear to have lost their seats with 98% of the vote counted in the local government elections.

Full preliminary results for 2016 local body elections for the North Island.

Lawrence Yule is thrilled that he's kept the mayoral chains.

New Wellington mayor had two speeches to choose from - one in a blue folder and one in a red folder. 'Fortunately,' he says, 'I get to read the one in the red folder.'

Hamish McDouall is Whanganui’s new mayor winning almost 40 per cent of the vote and nearly the twice the number of his nearest rival. Made with funding for NZ on Air.

The success of Labour-aligned candidates in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch mayoral contests will give party members a boost, Labour leader Andrew Little says.

National will need to make history to capture Phil Goff's Mt Roskill seat in an upcoming byelection, the party's president Peter Goodfellow says.

The mayoral race in the Far North was lacklustre in comparison with some others around the country with only an 11th-hour nomination by Waipapa motoring writer Peter Gill stopping incumbent John Carter from being elected unopposed.

Celebrations are taking place up and down the country as local body elections results roll in.

Auckland mayoral candidate Chloe Swarbrick has already been approached by political parties.

In a "rare interview" Mary Goff, wife of newly-elected Mayor Phil Goff, says her husband is probably the best person for the job.

An hour before Greg Brownless heard he had been elected mayor, he was balancing up whether to move the chicken coop or mow the lawns.

Unopposed Napier Mayor Bill Dalton says he has conflicting emotions about the new Napier City Council table.

Justin Lester was getting a haircut when he took the phone call telling him he had won the race to become Wellington mayor.

Garry Webber has been elected Western Bay of Plenty mayor in a tightly contested race.

Lianne Dalziel has thanked voters for placing their trust in her as she romped to a landslide re-election victory today and pledged: "I won't let you down".

Labour MP Phil Goff has been elected the new Mayor of Auckland.

Defeated Auckland Council candidate Bill Ralston said voting results show that the people on the right of the political spectrum "just

Northern Hawke's Bay farmer Craig Little has been elected to a second term as Mayor of Wairoa in an expected result despite a strong challenge from departing three-term councillor Benita Cairns.

Today's local body election result is a resounding victory for CHB mayoral candidate Alex Walker, who in the preliminary count has come in with about twice the vote of rival Sally Butler.