20 people now standing in Tauranga byelection

A byelection will be held to fill the vacant seat on the Tauranga City Council. Photo / File

There will be 20 people standing in the Tauranga byelection to fill one at-large position on the Tauranga City Council, with one more name added to the candidate list today.

Nominations closed at noon on Monday and yesterday evening there were 19 candidates on the list.

The byelection is being held to fill the position left vacant by the death of Councillor Gail McIntosh.

This afternoon the council updated the candidate number on its website to 20. The new name is Zeepra Lemoto.

Electoral officer Warwick Lampp said 20 was an "unprecedented number" in Tauranga for one position on the council.

"It shows obviously very good interest from the community," he said yesterday.

Lampp said over the next few weeks, profiles and photos of the candidates would be compiled and when they were ready they would go up on the council website.

"We'll encourage people at that point to get to know those candidates before the voter packs go out on the 9th of April," he said.

The 20 confirmed candidate names on the council website are:

•Sheldon Nesdale (Fix our Traffic! Fix our Recycling!)
•Buddy Mikaere (TOP – The Opportunities Party)
•Lester Gray (Putting People First)
•MJ Anderson (Independent)
•Tony Christiansen (Committed to Tauranga)
•Rosie Dawson-Hewes (Independent)
•Yvette Lamare
•Mark Wassung
•Douglas Owens (Independent)
•Bill Faulkner
•Anne Pankhurst
•Gillian Cook
•Andrew Ragg
•Talia Harvey
•David Leo Tank
•Robert Curtis (Independent)
•Murray Guy (Community First)
•John Robson (Real Change – Guaranteed)
•Peter Stanley (Independent)
•Zeepra Lemoto

To be eligible to stand in the byelection, the nominees had to be New Zealand citizens, over 18 years of age and on the electoral roll.

They do not have to live in Tauranga City, but the nominator and seconder must.

A candidate cannot nominate themselves and each candidate had to pay a $200 nomination fee.

Tauranga residents need to be enrolled to vote.

People who own a property in Tauranga but live outside of the area are also eligible to vote.

Timeline

March 5: Nominations closed
April 9-14: Voting papers will be sent out
May 1: Polling day (voting closes at noon) and preliminary results will be announced
May 7: Swearing in of the candidate at an extraordinary council meeting