Gisborne District Council staff members Anita Reedy-Holthausen and Amy McCarthy were taking votes on election day outside council offices. Photo / Zita Campbell
Gisborne District Council staff members Anita Reedy-Holthausen and Amy McCarthy were taking votes on election day outside council offices. Photo / Zita Campbell
There was a buzz outside the Gisborne District Council offices on election day today, with music, unicorns and the anticipation of progress results to come.
Progress results, which include votes cast up until Friday, have been released and show incumbent mayor Rehette Stoltz has been provisionally re-elected with 6330 votes.
From these results, it appears likely Māori ward seats will be retained, with 7534 voting to keep them and 4462 voting to remove them.
In the lead for the five Tairāwhiti Māori wards are current councillors Aubrey Ria (898), Rhonda Tibble (653), Rawinia Parata (664) and Nick Tupara (662), as well as candidate Anne Huriwai (623).
Former Green Party MP Elizabeth Kerekere is sixth in the Māori ward race, with 522 votes.
For the eight general ward spots, Collin Alder (2080), Rob Telfer (947), Jeremy Muir (916), Samuel Oak Vette Gibson (938), Alexandra Boros (940), Debbie Gregory (935), Larry Foster (900) and Teddy Thompson (871) are leading.
These candidates are provisionally elected, according to the council website. However, Andy Cranston is close behind with 850 votes.
These results could change as voting papers cast on Saturday morning will still be in transit to electoral officers.
Preliminary results will be announced on Monday, which include votes from election day but not special votes.
Official and final results will include all votes and will be released by Thursday, October 16.
Council director of engagement and Māori partnerships, Anita Reedy-Holthausen, said the election day morning was a great “vibe”.
As people dropped off their last-minute votes, Reedy-Holthausen and council staff member Amy McCarthy held out the orange ballot boxes outside the council building.
Voting closed at noon on Saturday and people were seen running from their cars to have their say on who would represent them.
“People have been really, really pleasant, which is awesome, and you know the numbers have been crazy, crazy,” Reedy-Holthausen said.
Music was pumping around the corner in the marina carpark drive-through voting event.
Reedy-Holthausen said there had been a good consistency of people using the drive-through.
“Huge numbers coming through there, so looking forward to the results.”
Gisborne residents Tania Rauna and her kids enhanced the atmosphere by dressing up as unicorns outside the offices and the drive-through voting event.
“The unicorns have been a great attraction for the kids,” said Reedy-Holthausen.
Tania Rauna (white unicorn) and her kids dressed up to create an exciting atmosphere outside the Gisborne District Council building and drive-through voting. Photo / Zita Campbell
Purple ballot boxes were also around the city at The Warehouse, Paper Plus, Elgin Shop N Save, Fresh Choice Kaiti, and others were at Te Karaka, Matawai and the East Coast.
As of Friday, the total voter turnout was 36.9% between both wards, which surpasses the 32.4% at the same time during the 2022 elections.
However, it was below the 38% achieved on the eve of election day in 2019.
Overall, the voter turnout for 2019 was 50.1% and 43.4% in 2022.
Of the 11,731 enrolled to vote in the Māori ward, 34.1% had voted, as of Friday, and of the 22,336 enrolled to vote in the general ward, 38.4% had voted.
