Current Kawerau Mayor Faylene Tunui has been returned with a clear majority.
Current Kawerau Mayor Faylene Tunui has been returned with a clear majority.
With the majority of votes counted, it is looking certain that Kawerau District Council will be retaining both its Māori wards and its current mayor in the local election.
Preliminary results released on Sunday show that in the Māori ward referendum, 1511 have voted to keep Māori wards and just695 have voted not to keep them.
Current mayor Faylene Tunui has received a clear majority of votes with 1611 compared to Carolyn Ion’s 649.
It appears that Ion will not be returning as councillor either as the two vacancies on the Kawerau district at large she also stood for have current councillors Sela Kingi, with 1351 votes and Berice Julian, with 1301 votes comfortably ahead of her 1066.
Meanwhile, while Māori wards will add three new names to Ōpōtiki District Council this local election, all the other seats will be familiar faces.
Preliminary results show current Mayor David Moore, with 2141 votes, has a clear lead over his opponent Curley Keno with 786.
In the Coast Māori ward Papa Wharewera, with 277 votes will take the seat against Haki McRoberts with 92, and in the urban Ōpōtiki Māori ward, Maude Maxwell (510) and Curley Keno (397) have won the two available seats over Linda Steel (319).
Current deputy mayor Shona Browne (518) and councillor Barry Howe (491) have outdistanced the competition for the two urban general ward seats, and two other current councillors, Dean Petersen (529) and Steve Nelson (479), also have clear leads in the rural general ward.
Final results, which include special votes, will be available by Friday.
– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
