Voting has closed in the Uenuku Charitable Trust's drive to represent Raetihi-area Maori in the upcoming Whanganui land claims.
The trust wants to negotiate on behalf of descendants of Tamakana, Tamahaki and Uenuku - groups located in the centre of the large land claim region. Its roadshow travelled New Zealand from June 25 to mid-July.
Voting ended on July 31. The trust website says 321 people, or 42 per cent of Uenuku's registered members, had voted by 10am on July 29.
Yesterday, trust communications manager Mahanga Williams could not give a total of votes received. He was still verifying the registration of the voters, to make sure they were entitled to have a say.
He expected to publicise the number of votes cast and the total vote outcome tomorrow.
The roadshow and voting process had been wonderful, and encouraging, he said.
The trust doesn't have everyone's support, however. A public notice in the Chronicle last month urged people entitled to vote to say "no".
It said the Uenuku Charitable Trust didn't have the support of hapu in the area or of those who had presented local grievances to the Waitangi Tribunal over the past 15 years.
Raetihi resident Rangi Bristol is entitled to vote on the mandate process, but said he had not done so. He was a member of the former Uenuku Tribal Authority, which was disestablished by the new Uenuku Charitable Trust.
"The (Uenuku Tribal Authority) went through the proper process. These people (the trust), to me, have hijacked it and never went through what we went through. They have just come along and upset everyone and just want to be the big chief," he said.
The trust was formed at Mangamingi Marae on February 1, 2014. It had its first annual general meeting on July 12. The chairman is Aiden Gilbert and 25 other board members have been provisionally appointed - to be finalised in an August 23 meeting.