A former New Zealand Army infantryman whose career included deployments to several of the world's conflict hot-spots has been elected to Wairoa District Council. Jeremy Harker beat off nine other candidates for a seat on the council in a byelection which closed today. The 46-year-old spent 26 years in the army, risingto the rank of colonel, and during his career was deployed to East Timor, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and Angola. He moved to Wairoa in 2008, joined the board of primary health organisation Health Hawke's Bay last year, and recently started work as human resources manager at contracting firm Quality Roading Services. According to preliminary results released this afternoon, Mr Harker received 780 votes in the byelection, 368 more than the second highest polling candidate, Carl Van der Meer. Just over 44 per cent of Wairoa's 5510 eligible voters took part in the byelection which followed the resignation of first-term councillor and local businessman Chris Joblin who quit the council in November last year. Final results will be confirmed next week. Preliminary results were: Jeremy Harker, 780 votes; Carl Van der Meer, 412; Denys Caves, 324; Dave Evans, 246; Julianna Dawson, 188, Trevor Mihaere, 134; Shaun Haraki, 106; Gordon Preston, 83; Sean Gaskin, 77; Don Leyland, 64; Blank, 10; Informal votes, 3.
