Tauranga election: Voter turnout ‘disappointing’, says new mayor Mahé Drysdale

Tauranga Mayor Mahé Drysdale says it is councillors' job to make their community feel heard. Photo / Alex Cairns

Tauranga’s new mayor Mahé Drysdale is “disappointed” at the low voter turnout for the city’s first council election in five years.

Just 38.7% of eligible voters cast a ballot in the Tauranga City Council election on Saturday, official returns show.

Drysdale said the turnout was “a little bit disappointing, especially after not having that opportunity for the last four years”.

A Government-appointed commission, led by former MP Anne Tolley, ran Tauranga from February 2021 after the elected council was sacked for dysfunction.

“My priority is we have democracy and, if we can make that work, then there’s no need for them [commissioners],” Drysdale said.

“Our job as councillors is to engage with the community, make them feel valued and that their views are heard.

“Hopefully, that will lead to them engaging more in selecting who represents them.”

Of the 109,364 eligible voters in Tauranga, 42,4000 voted. The population of New Zealand’s fifth-largest city is 161,000.

This year’s turnout was lower than in the 2019 election, when 40.3% of eligible voters took to the ballot boxes.

In 2016, voter turnout was 38.1%, in 2013 it was 37.9% and in 2010 it was 43.6%.

Tauranga City Council strategy, growth and governance manager Christine Jones said the council used new tactics to try to improve voter participation.

The election was out of sync with the rest of the country, so the council was solely responsible for creating awareness about it, she said.

Tauranga City Council strategy, growth and governance general manager Christine Jones. Photo / Alex Cairns

In early 2022, the commission’s term was extended until July 2024. This meant Tauranga missed the October 2022 council elections.

An election-focused Instagram page was launched and the council translated all election material into te reo Māori, Punjabi, Korean, Hindi, Spanish, Chinese Mandarin, Samoan and Tongan.

The 75 candidates could create a 90-second video for their profile on the council election website. These videos generated nearly 50,000 views.

The council’s “most visible addition” this election was placing orange voting bins at all supermarkets around the city, which were advertised widely.

Jones said 86% of all votes came through the bins, showing this approach worked.

The council would support online voting if it was introduced for local body elections, she said.

Asked if the lower voter turnout was disappointing, she said it was an issue that affected all councils.

The council would research the 2024 election to help with future campaigns.

Local Government New Zealand vice-president Campbell Barry. Photo / Georgina Campbell

Local Government New Zealand vice-president Campbell Barry said the turnout in Tauranga “continues a deeply concerning trend around voter turnout in local government elections”.

In response, LGNZ had established an electoral reform group to look at ways of increasing voter participation.

“LGNZ is advocating for fundamental reform of our local electoral system to increase voter participation across the country. Without reform, there is a serious threat to the mandate mayors and councils have to speak up for their communities,” Barry said.

The group was also looking at how people could vote, who oversaw elections, and the possibility of four-year terms for councils instead of the current three years.

The chair of the electoral reform group, Nelson Mayor Nick Smith, said there were questions over the viability of postal voting with the decline in postal services and most people doing their business online.

It was more important than ever, with democracy being challenged internationally and growing disinformation on social media, that the approach to local elections was refreshed, Smith said in a statement.

- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.