Hamilton City Council elections: Eight candidates contesting mayoralty

The fields are set for this year's Hamilton City Council election race with 41 candidates signed up when nominations closed on Friday.

Seven candidates are challenging incumbent Andrew King who is having a second tilt at the mayoral title.

They include current councillors Angela O'Leary, James Casson, and Paula Southgate. The others are Jack Gielen, Lisa Lewis, Louise Hutt, and Mike West.

In the previous election in 2016 there was a total of seven mayoral candidates.

Mr King and Ms Southgate are only seeking the Hamilton mayoralty and are not contesting a seat in either of the two Hamilton wards.

In the East Ward, 20 candidates have put their name forward for the six seats.

They are: Brad Hills, Margaret Forsyth, Jack Gielen, Peter Humphreys, Lisa Lewis, Rob Pascoe, Tim Young, Kesh Naidoo-Rauf, Anna Smart, James Casson, Tony Dixon, Ryan Hamilton, Krishna Reddy, Mark Bunting, Meleane Burgess, Andrew Bydder, Garry Mallett, Maxine van Oosten, Mike West and Andrea McLachlan.

In 2016 there were 25 candidates for the East Ward places.

In the West ward, 19 candidates are vying for six places around the Council table compared to 16 who sought seats in 2016.

The 2019 West Ward candidates are: Matthew Small, Chris Davis, Shanti Ralm, Rudi du Plooy, Leo Tooman, Angela O'Leary, Sarah Thomson, Dave Macpherson, Geoff Taylor, Martin Gallagher, Siggi Henry, Michelle Houghton, Louise Hutt, David McNab, Ewan Wilson, Peter Bos, Geoff Holt, Melaina Huaki and Matt Shea.

The city council says candidate profiles and answers to five questions outlined in the Council's pre-election report will be online at yourcityelections.co.nz/candidates starting August 22.

The questions are:

• What's your vision for Hamilton?

• What do you think is key for managing our city's growth?

• What's the one thing you'd do differently that would make Hamilton an even better place to live?

• What's the biggest technology opportunity Hamilton is missing and how can we make it happen?

• How do you think we can get more people interested and engaged in Council?

The website also includes details of election events around the city.

Voting packs will start arriving in the mail from September 20.

Voters are being urged to post their ballots by October 5 to guarantee they will arrive in time to be counted. There is no online voting.

Voting officially closes at midday on Saturday October 12.

Completed voting papers can be hand-delivered to the Hamilton City Council office in Garden Place up until then.

By law, voting papers received after midday cannot be counted.

Voters are being urged to take care when filling in their voting paper to ensure all instructions are followed.

If not filled in correctly, the vote will not be counted.

Those not already enrolled to vote in local government elections can do so up to Friday October 11.