Election 2017: Meet the candidates

The election hoardings are going up and voters can quiz those standing for election at meet the candidates events across the region.

The final list of those standing in next month's general election won't be known until the end of this month, but there are plenty of meet the candidate events already organised across Northland.

Political parties are expected to submit their candidate lists on August 28 with individual candidates having to register by the following day for the September 23 election.

The first meet the candidates event in the Northland electorate was last month at Kaitaia College and there are plenty more organised for voters to meet and grill those standing for election.

The views of those standing in Whangarei on disability issues will be heard at an event organised by Taiho Trust, which supports disabled people. The meeting is in the Cafler Suite, at Forum North, from 1pm to 3pm on August 18. A sign language interpreter will be present too.

Possibly the most entertaining meeting will be the PechaKucha meet the candidates night for the Whangarei electorate at ONEONESIX, 116A Bank St, Whangarei, from 7pm on August 30.

PechaKucha is a presentation format where each speaker shows 20 slides and has 20 seconds to talk about each slide. Each presenter gets exactly the same amount of time to speak.

All candidates contesting the Whangarei and Te Tai Tokerau electorates are invited to a forum on poverty meet the candidates event at the Whangarei Central Baptist Church, Bank St, from 3pm on September 3.

Members of the Public Question Committee of St John's Methodist Church and Presbyterian Uniting Church and the Social Justice group of the Whangarei Anglican Church have joined forces to find ways to resolve the poverty problem and want the candidates to explain how they think the problem can be best dealt with. The meeting will be chaired by Carol Peters.

The Northland electorate candidates for next month's general election have been invited to a public meeting at the Paihia Pacific Resort Hotel on September 4, starting 4pm. The two-hour session has been organised by the Paihia and District Residents and Ratepayers Association.

• If you have a meet the candidates event organised for the Northland, Whangarei or Te Tai Tokerau electorates let us know by emailing the details to reporters@northernadvocate.co.nz.

ELECTION TIMETABLE:

• Parliament will be dissolved on August 23 and the following day, writ day, will signal the start of the campaign proper.

• That is also the day the electoral rolls are finalised for printing.

• People must be enrolled by this day to be on the roll. They can still register to vote after this date but will have to cast a special vote.

• Major parties are expected to submit their candidate lists on August 28 with individual candidates having to register by the following day.

• The election will be held on September 23. Preliminary results will be released from 7pm that night with the official results declared on October 7.