Nominations close for Tauranga byelection, 19 people standing

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

Nineteen people will be standing in next month's Tauranga byelection to fill one at-large position on the Tauranga City Council.

Nominations closed at noon today.

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

Electoral officer Warwick Lampp said 19 candidates was a "very high number" for a council byelection.

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

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 19 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)

Tauranga's mayor Greg Brownless said the high number of candidates showed a lot of people were interested in what goes on at council "and think that they can make a contribution".

He said a lot of candidates gave voters a wide range of choice.

He said a councillor needed to be someone who could think, speak for themselves, work with others, make decisions, argue for what they wanted and against what they did not want.

Some of the issues Brownless thought would come up in the byelection campaign were traffic, roading and transport, housing, facilities and funding, and the proposed museum.

The council voted last month to poll city residents on whether they supported the museum being included in the 2018-28 Long Term Plan.

The non-binding referendum would be included in voting papers going out for the byelection.

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