Horowhenua elections: Eight new councillors

Bernie Wanden was re-elected as Mayor of the Horowhenua District.

Levin businessman Bernie Wanden has won the Horowhenua mayoral race for the second time, garnering 5040 votes over Sam Jennings (2710 votes) and Victoria Kaye-Simmons (2128 votes).

Wanden will have 13 councillors, eight of whom are new.

Kere Kere Ward re-elected its councillors Ross Brannigan and David Allan, while Robert ketu lost to Paul Olsen for the Miranui Ward.

Waiopehu has two new councillors, Rogan Boyle and Jonathna Procter.

Levin elected Sam Jennings again as well as Piri-Hira Tukapua. Clint Grimnstone, Alan Young and Mike Barker are new.

Māori voters elected Nina Hori Te Pa and Justin Tamihana to the Māori ward seats.
Nola Fox had the largest vote for the Foxton Community Board, followed by John Girling, Trevor Chambers, David Roache and Brett Russell.

The votes as of Saturday night. These results are preliminary:

Mayoralty
WANDEN, Bernie 5040
JENNINGS, Sam The Change We Need 2710
KAYE-SIMMONS, Victoria Independent 2128

Kere Kere General Ward (2 vacancies)
ALLAN, David 881
BRANNIGAN, Ross 876
RUSSELL, Brett, Simply The Best 621
GIRLING, John 594

Miranui General Ward (1 vacancy)
OLSEN, Paul 439
KETU, Robert 180

Levin General Ward (5 vacancies)
JENNINGS, Sam, Standing Up For Horowhenua 2759
TUKAPUA, Piri-Hira Josephine 2273
GRIMSTONE, Clint 2227
YOUNG, Alan 2215
BARKER, Mike, Independent 1721
KIRK, Athol, Independent 1577
PITT, Veronica 1439
MASOE, Jane Vailaua 1429
TAHIWI, Kelly 946
VAN DEN BERG, Carl, To serve my community 791

Waiopehu General Ward (2 vacancies)
BOYLE, Rogan 1702
PROCTER, Jonathan 1308
AYLWARD, Barry 915

Horowhenua (Māori) Ward (2 vacancies)
HORI TE PA, Nina 462
TAMIHANA, Justin 354
O'CARROLL, Troy, Whakawehi Marae Trustees 254

Te Awahou Foxton Community Board (5 vacancies)
FOX, Nola, Working together for Foxton & Beach 1089
GIRLING, John 899
CHAMBERS, Trevor 892
ROACHE, David 877
RUSSELL, Brett, Simply The Best 874
SANSON, Lindsay 834
* TAMIHANA, Justin (Withdrawn) 736

(* Progress result only - Withdrawn as potentially elected at ward)

The voter return was 42.45 per cent, being 10,866 votes, excluding votes in transit to the processing centre and special votes, the electoral office said.

While the turnout overall for Horowhenua was 42.45 per cent, for Kere Kere and Miranuis this was 41.86 and 36.33 per cent respectively. Levin scored 42.75 with Waiopehu reaching 51.54 per cent. The Māori votes are attracted voted from 719 of its 2691 eligible votes, or 26.72 per cent.

Voter turnout was 54.57 per cent in 2019 and 51 per cent in 2016 and 52.93 per cent in 2013.

For the two seats for the Horowhenua Constituency at Horizons Regional Council the votes were:
Emma CLARKE 6734
Sam FERGUSON 6141
Donald HAYES 4018

For the one seat for the TONGA MĀORI CONSTITUENCY at Horizons the votes were:
Te Kenehi TEIRA 1264
Warwick GERNHOEFER 388