The battle for Whangārei Mayor continues.
The first round of local election results in Northland ended on a cliffhanger for some districts.
Sixty-seven votes were all that separated incumbent Whangārei Mayor Vince Cocurullo from challenger Ken Couper.
A similar situation played out in Kaipara, where current Deputy Mayor Jonathan Larsen was ahead of his closest mayoral rival, Snow Tane, by just 52 votes.
Far North Mayor Moko Tepania has a comfortable lead of more than 3000 votes ahead of runner-up Ann Court.
Yesterday’s results were based solely on ballot papers cast before 5pm on Friday but reflect about 90% of all votes.
Today may bring further clarity in the neck-and-neck jostling for mayoralty as Saturday’s votes enter the mix.
Special votes still need to be counted, meaning the final results are not yet known. The final count is expected this Friday.
At last count, the battle for Whangārei Mayor had Cocurullo on 9841 votes with seasoned district councillor Couper close behind on 9774.
Fellow candidate Marie Olsen was in the middle of the pack with 6937 votes. Then came Brad Flower and Fiona Green, whose tallies were too low to keep them in the race.
However, Flower’s votes landed him as second-favourite for the Whangārei Urban General Ward – again behind Olsen.
The largest of Whangārei’s wards has five vacancies which, based on the progressive results, would see Paul Yovich, Nicholas Connop and Crichton Christie fill the remaining three seats.
Missing are familiar faces Jayne Golightly and Carol Peters.
At this stage, the other successful ward councillors were Ken Couper and Matthew Yovich (Bream Bay General Ward); Scott McKenzie and Stephen Martin (Hikurangi-Coastal General Ward); Simon Reid (Mangakahia-Maungatapere General Ward); Deb Harding and Phoenix Ruka (Mangakahia-Maungatapere General Ward), and Tangiwai Baker (Whangārei Heads General Ward).
In Kaipara, experienced businessman and iwi leader Snow Tane’s 2482 votes are hot on the heels of current Deputy Mayor Jonathan Larsen’s 2534.
Jason Smith, who is looking to return to the role he held until 2022, was a mere 22 votes from knocking Tane out of second position.
Ash Nayyar was yet to cross the 1000 threshold with 982 votes in his favour.
Outgoing Mayor Craig Jepson, who opted not to re-seek the title, appears to have successfully campaigned for the Kaiwaka-Mangawhai Ward – although he will not be the ward’s front-runner, a title that currently belongs to Rachael Williams.
The line-up of ward councillors appears as: Snow Tane, Joesephine Nathan and Jan Beatty (Wairoa Ward); Rachael Williams, Craig Jepson and Luke Canton (Kaiwaka-Mangawhai Ward) and Mike Schimanski and Mark Vincent (Ōtamatea Ward).
While the final count is days away, yesterday’s results confirmed Tepania would retain his role as Far North Mayor.
This year, Tepania is more than 3600 votes clear of Court, with Sovereign’s Joshua Riley a distant third.
Results showed a mixed bag for Far North District councillors, with six incumbents retaining their seats and four newcomers joining the table.
Court retained her seat in the Bay of Islands-Whangaroa General Ward, while newcomer Davina Smolders took the second spot.
Incumbent Deputy Mayor Kelly Stratford took the third and final seat and incumbent Steve McNally was voted out.
The Kaikohe-Hokianga General Ward was retained by John Vujcich, who will serve his fifth term.
In the Ngā Tai o Tokerau Māori Ward, incumbents Hilda Halkyard-Harawira and Tāmati Rākena have been provisionally re-elected, alongside newcomers Chicky Rudkin and Arohanui Allen.
This means incumbents Penetaui Kleskovic and Babe Kapa miss out on re-election.
In the Te Hiku General Ward, incumbent Felicity Foy has been re-elected alongside newcomer Rachel Baucke, with long-standing councillor Mate Radich standing down.
The Northland Regional Council was the scene for upsets yesterday.
The first was in the Te Raki Māori Ward, where newcomers Pita Tipene and Arama Morunga ousted incumbents Peter-Lucas Jones and Tui Shortland.
The second upset took place in the Coastal South General Constituency when Mangawhai’s John Hunt beat incumbent Rick Stolwerk by 419 votes.
Incumbents Amy MacDonald (Coastal Central), Joe Carr (Far North), John Blackwell (Kaipara), Jack Craw (Whangārei Central) and Colin (Toss) Kitchen (Bay of Islands-Whangaroa) have all been re-elected.
Geoff Crawford, the incumbent chair, was also elected unopposed to the Mid North Ward.
Voters favoured removing Māori wards from both the regional council and Whangārei District Council. However, Māori wards survived the vote in the Far North.
Kaipara District Council made history as the only council to abolish its Māori ward, following Government changes in August last year.