By MARTIN JOHNSTON health reporter
The number of candidates standing for the first district health board elections is starting to pick up.
Some boards still had too few or only just enough candidates for the number of seats yesterday, but electoral officers and boards predict a last-minute rush.
Nominations close at midday tomorrow.
If
a ward has just sufficient candidates, they are declared elected without votes being cast.
If not enough candidates are nominated, Health Minister Annette King can top up a board - in addition to the four ministerial appointments already planned for each board.
Yesterday, there were too few candidates in two Bay of Plenty wards, and the Lakes board (which serves the Rotorua-Taupo district) was short in one.
There are 147 elected positions nationally - seven on each of the 21 boards. Around 220 hopefuls had put their hands up by yesterday, 70 of them since Tuesday.
The Ministry of Health's director of board elections, David Curry, said, "They are coming in pretty fast now."
To encourage people to stand, the ministry is advertising on radio in several languages as part of a $225,000 campaign which also includes leaflets, posters and newspaper and magazine advertisements.
A spokeswoman for Mrs King said she was happy that the pace at which nominations were coming in had picked up.
But National's health spokesman, Roger Sowry, maintained that, with deficits predicted to top $200 million, the boards were being set up to fail and that this would hold back the number of candidates.
"Why would people want to stand for a job where at the first meeting they are going to talk about what services to cut? Not many people want to do Labour's dirty work in cutting services," he said.
Feature: Local body elections 2001
