By CHRIS DANIELS and JOSIE CLARKE
The battle for control of electricity lines company Vector is under way.
Nominations for election to the Auckland Energy Consumer Trust, which holds all shares in the monopoly lines company, have closed, with 23 people set to stand for election.
Also at issue is the more than $100 million in dividends waiting to be paid to Vector customers by the trust, which is being held up by the Auckland, Manukau and Papakura Councils.
Conservative local body group Citizens and Ratepayers has been hit by defections and has decided not to endorse some of its former members.
And not a single C&R incumbent is standing for re-election, with some defecting and others failing to win approval from the group.
Craig Little, appointed to the trust two years ago, has set up the EnergyAuckland ticket, luring C&R stalwart Stan Lawson, trust chairman Michael Barnett and two others to join.
C&R rejected a bid from existing trustee Morris Brown to stand on their ticket after he refused to sign an undertaking that he would not stand as an independent if he was turned down.
He is now standing as an independent and said ``senior C&R people'' had told him they were incredibly surprised at what had happened.
"I don't know what C&R are trying to do. I was the only loyal person left from a winning ticket."
C&R president John Collinge said he was asked to stand, and the election was important, being the first since Auckland's 1998 downtown power blackout.
Current trustee Karen Sherry, endorsed by C&R in the last election, and a staunch anti-privatiser, now leads the Powerlynk team. She was disgusted at the way other C&R trustees had behaved on the trust and said privatisation had been prevented only by a narrow margin.
C&R-endorsed candidates would "sell at the drop of a hat," she said.
"It is the last opportunity for Auckland to decide if it wants Vector to remain in public ownership or go to the Americans."
EnergyAuckland head Craig Little said his team was not preparing to sell off any part of Vector, and had no agenda to privatise.
Voting papers to select five trustees will be sent to all 260,000 Vector customers in Auckland, Manukau and Papakura from September 22.
Wrangling starts over control of Vector
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