Voting for the Hamilton West byelection starts today and ends on December 10. Photo / Bevan Conley
Voting for the Hamilton West byelection starts today and ends on December 10. Photo / Bevan Conley
Voting in the Hamilton West byelection started today with eight dedicated advance voting places in the city open.
The voting places that opened today include Te Awa - the Base and the Centre Place Shopping Centre in Victoria St, but the number of advance voting places will increase over the voting period, with 20 venues open on election day, December 10.
Electoral Commission chief electoral officer Karl Le Quesne says there will be plenty of opportunity to vote when you are out and about over the next couple of weeks.
“Look out for your EasyVote pack in the mail. The pack includes your EasyVote card which makes voting faster ... If you live in the Hamilton West electorate and don’t get an EasyVote pack this week, it means you’re not enrolled or you need to update your address on the electoral roll,” Le Quesne says.
“Do it now, so you can have your say in the byelection.”
Only those enrolled in the Hamilton West general electorate are eligible to vote at the dedicated voting sites. Postal voting is not available.
The Hamilton West electorate comprises the Hamilton City suburbs west of the Waikato River including Melville, Frankton, Nawton, Pukete and Te Rapa. It also includes Woodridge and parts of Flagstaff, which are east of the Waikato River.
As of October 31, there were 47,911 people enrolled in Hamilton West on the general electoral roll.
The byelection was forced by the resignation of former Labour MP Dr Gaurav Sharma, who won the Hamilton West seat in 2020 and was recently expelled from the Labour Party’s caucus after a series of allegations he made against members of the party.
The candidates vying to represent the electorate until the next parliamentary election last next year include Labour candidate Georgie Dansey, National candidate Tama Potaka and Act candidate Dr James McDowall, as well as Sharma himself.
Also standing are recent Hamilton City Council candidates Rudi Du Plooy, who now represents the New Conservative Party and One Party, and Donna Pokere-Phillips, for the NZ Outdoors & Freedom Party who ran unsuccessfully for the Hamilton mayoralty and as a Kirikiriroa Māori Ward candidate.
Other candidates are Naomi Pocock for The Opportunities Party (TOP), who stood unsuccessfully in Hamilton East for the party in the 2020 general election, Jade Tait for Vision New Zealand, Peter Wakeman for the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party, Richard Osmaston for the Money Free Party and independent candidates Frank Fu and Gordon Dickson.
The Hamilton West electorate comprises the Hamilton city suburbs west of the Waikato River as well as Woodridge and parts of Flagstaff, which are east of the river. Graphic / Supplied
Different from a general election where you have two votes, one for a party and the other for your local candidate, there is only one vote in this byelection. Voters only select the candidate they want to be the local Member of Parliament, there is no party vote.
Voters can enrol or update their details online at vote.nz. They can also enrol and vote at the same time at any voting place, including on election day. Voting place locations and opening hours are also available online or by calling freephone 0800 36 76 56
If people can’t get to a voting place due to health or mobility reasons, they can call the freephone to arrange a postal or takeaway vote when someone picks up the voting papers.
Voters who are blind or visually impared and are therefore unable to mark their voting paper, can vote using telephone dictation after having registered for this special form of voting.
