Whangarei Mayor Morris Cutforth. Photo / File
With dozens of people standing in October's local body elections in Northland, only one thing is certain - that Sharon Morgan will keep her place as the Mangakahia-Maungatapere Ward councillor for Whangarei District Council after nobody put their hand up to stand against her.
When nominations for the October 12 local body elections closed on Friday Ms Morgan was the only person standing for the ward, meaning she is elected unopposed for the second time.
But while that ward is sown up already, the race is wide open for every other position on the Whangarei and Far North District councils, Northland Regional Council and Northland District Health Board.
It's the race for the mayoralty in both Whangarei and Far North Districts that is likely to be the most keenly contested, with 12 candidates wanting to replace Morris Cutforth as Mayor of Whangarei and six people taking on incumbent Wayne Brown for the Far North.
In Whangarei, Stuart Bell, Glenn Chapman, Crichton Christie, Vince Cocurullo, Shelley Deeming, Sheryl Mai, Greg Martin, Isopo Samu, Stan Semenoff, Warren Slater, Warwick Syers and Graham Tadman are all fighting for the mayoralty in possibly the most congested - and experienced - race ever.
Mr Semenoff is a former three-time mayor, while Ms Deeming, Mr Christie, Mr Martin and Mr Syers are all sitting councillors. As well, Mr Cocurullo, Ms Mai and Mr Samu are former councillors - with both men having previously stood unsuccessfully for mayor - as did Mr Slater.
Only Mr Bell, Mr Chapman and Mr Tadman are new to local politics.
Standing for the two positions in the Bream Bay ward are incumbents Ms Deeming and Phil Halse, Evelyn Johnson and Tom McClelland.
The Denby Ward has three councillors to elect and competing for the places are Chris Barber, Crichton Christie (incumbent), Roger Clark, Tricia Cutforth, Sheryl Mai, Kiri Peeni, Kahu Sutherland (incumbent), Les Wakefield and John Williamson (incumbent).
The two Hikurangi-Coastal Ward places are contested by Susy Bretherton, Robert Carpenter, Dave Gundry, Jeroen Jongejans (incumbent), Greg Martin (incumbent), Steve McNally and Ian Peters.
Eighteen people are competing for the four Okara Ward seats - Stuart Bell, Tim Bell, Glenn Chapman, Duncan Coutts, Sue Glenn (incumbent), David Harris, Cherry Hermon, John Himiona, Rhonda Kawiti, William Leonard, Maureen Lyons-Adair, Bruce McGregor, Brian McLachlan (incumbent), Jess Morgan, Esther-Jordan Muriwai, Warren Slater, Jonny Wilkinson and Merv Williams (incumbent).
The Whangarei Heads Ward will have a new councillor with incumbent Warwick Syers seeking the mayoralty only. Standing in the ward are Richard Engdahl, Greg Innes, Kim Jones, Pete Ludlow and Brian May.
In the Far North Mr Brown, former MP John Carter, current councillor Ann Court, Mita Harris, Reuben Taipari Porter, Allan Titford and Sarah Watson are competing for the mayoralty.
Standing for the four seats in the Bay of Islands-Whangaroa Ward are Craig Ambler, Harko Brown, Ann Court (incumbent), John Davison, Dave Hookway, Martin Leiding, Di Maxwell (incumbent), Tania McInnes, Hugh McKechnie, Steve McNally (incumbent), Willow-Jean Prime, Doug Schmuck, Stephen Timings and Jerry Twigden.
Standing for the three seats in the Te Hiku Ward are; David Collard, Peter Furze, Colin Kitchen (incumbent), Monty Knight (incumbent), Rangitane Marsden, Bryce McDonald, Ken Mullarkey, Helen Munro, Mate Radich (incumbent), J T Tahana and Hazely Windelborn.
The two seats in the Kaikohe-Hokianga ward are being contested by Laurie Byers, Mike Fitzgerald, Babe Kapa, Sally Macauley (incumbent), Timi Ngatai-Haenga, Ken Rintoul and John Vujcich.
Northland Regional Council:
The Whangarei Urban Constituency - two seats: John Bain (incumbent), Paul Gosling, Mira Norris, Bill Rossiter (incumbent), Hahuna Seve and David Sinclair.
Coastal North Constituency - two seats: Vaughan Gunson, Dover Samuels, Spencer Scoular, Bill Shepherd and Solomon Tipene.
Coastal Central Constituency - one seat: Paul Dimery, Martin Hunt, Mike Kake, Liz Nelson, Pauline Rose and Vivienne Shepherd.
Coastal South Constituency - one seat: Craig Brown (incumbent), Deborah Harding, and Jan Vaudrey.
Hokianga-Kaikohe Constituency - one seat: Justin Blaikie, Joe Carr (incumbent), Simon Land and Puti Tipene.
Kaipara Constituency - one seat: Rochelle Butt, Jonathan Larsen, Graeme Ramsey (incumbent) and Andrew Wade.
Ti Hiku Constituency - one seat: Dennis Bowman, Mike Finlayson or Bronwyn Hunt (incumbent).
Northland District Health Board - seven seats: Pauline Allen-Downs (incumbent), Florence Annison, John Bain (incumbent), Dennis Bowman, Craig Brown (incumbent), Shirleyanne Brown, David Collard, Beth Cooper, Brent Doncliff, Irene Durham, Debbie Evans, Mike Fitzgerald, Michael Gardam, Jill Garret, Libby Jones (incumbent), Colin Kitchen (incumbent), Maureen Lyons-Adair, Sally Macauley (incumbent), Ros Martin, Chris Reid, Dover Samuels, Bill Sanderson (incumbent), Kevin Singleton, Rosanne Taylor, John Vujcich, Mike Ward and Jonny Wilkinson.