Tom Belford (left), Jacqueline Taylor and Joe Walding-Karaitiana battled for regional council's Hastings seat - even after the latter pulled out. Photo File
Tom Belford (left), Jacqueline Taylor and Joe Walding-Karaitiana battled for regional council's Hastings seat - even after the latter pulled out. Photo File
OPINION
Congratulations to our latest Hawke's Bay regional councillor, Jacqueline Taylor.
The first-time runner received 4919 votes, a byelection majority of 1882 over runner-up and former councillor Tom Belford, who claimed 3037 votes.
The circumstances of a third candidate, Joe Walding-Karaitiana (who garnered 2361 votes) made this result one ofthe most bizarre scenarios in local body election history.
In these extraordinary Covid times, we had an extraordinary byelection that had nothing to do with lockdown.
Walding-Karaitiana decided not to run and attempted to withdraw a day after nominations closed - but it was too late for his name to be excluded officially from the ballot.
Council's electoral officer, Leeanne Hooper, rightly cited Local Electoral Act legislation, whereby after the close of nominations the only way for a nomination to be 'cancelled' is if a candidate, "either dies or is declared incapacitated by a medical practitioner" before the close of voting.
Though no fault of his own, Walding-Karaitiana's ensuing votes are the stuff of farce.
Here's a charming, young, high-achieving rugby playing candidate who was always going to push the buttons for an array of voters, including iwi.
He pulled out a day after nominations closed on July 15. Three nominations were on papers sent to registered electors on the week of August 19-24.
The impact of a voting anomaly for Hawke's Bay Regional Council's Hastings seat will remain a mystery. Photo File
Thus there was a four-week window to inform voters or alter voting papers from three candidates to two - had the legislation provided.
Yet his name remained on the ballot - indelible Joe.
One elderly voter rang our newsroom a few days after posting her papers, wondering if she could vote again as there was nothing on the ballot suggesting Walding-Karaitiana wasn't a valid option.
What local body folly.
I'll hasten to add I'm not for a moment suggesting Taylor wouldn't have won had it been a two-horse race.
Who knows, she may have won by a bigger margin, Walding-Karaitiana may have split the vote and drawn votes from either, or both.
But the point is, as a consequence of this legislation's shortcomings, we'll never know.
The fiasco has done nothing but threaten to deepen voter apathy.
The purpose of the Act is to: "modernise the law governing the conduct of local elections and polls," and in doing so to "provide sufficient flexibility in the law to readily accommodate new technologies and processes as they are developed."
My inference from this absurdity is that it's failed in the above, failed the voters and failed democracy.
