Wendy Schollum was leading her nearest rival Marcus Buddo by 545 votes, based on 95% of the vote count.
Final-day votes have fallen the way of Wendy Schollum, who is the new Mayor of Hastings, preliminary results show.
Schollum was leading her nearest rival, Marcus Buddo, by 545 votes, based on 95% of the vote count.
He was 324 votes behind after progress results on Saturday, but late votes extended Schollum’s lead further.
Buddo, who is heading back to farming life, conceded defeat and wished Schollum well.
He said he was disappointed but wished her and the new council “all the best and every success”.
“I’ll have a bit of a rethink and see where that takes us going forward,” Buddo said.
“In the meantime, I’ll be working on the farm and at the end of the day, I like farming.”
In the Hastings-Havelock North ward, where 17 candidates were vying for seven seats, preliminary results have seen Nick Ratcliffe jump to seventh place, winning him a seat, while Rizwaana Latiff fell to eighth and out of council.
It remains tight, with just 27 votes between them and special votes still to count. Gareth Freeman is another 75 votes further back in ninth.
The voter return in Hastings was 44.71% of the electoral roll.
Depending on the counting progress, the final results are anticipated to be available by Thursday October 16.
A mayoral candidate and a councillor since 2016, Damon Harvey, who was sitting fourth and not standing as a councillor again, said he was grateful to all those people who supported him.
He said he had given his all to the community for more than 20 years.
“I’m not going to stop here. Another door will open,” Harvey said.
“It’s time to focus on our business interests and new governance opportunities as well as spend more time with the family, hit some mountain bike trails, the surf.
“I wish the new mayor and councillors all the very best.”
Harvey said the council would need to “lift its accountability to the community” moving forward.
“That was the glaring topic during the election campaign, based on the rates hikes.“
Harvey said a frequent question he faced was around why rates had risen so much, and there appeared to be a disconnect between the higher rates rises in recent years and the community’s understanding of the demands the council had been facing – from the cyclone recovery to replacing water infrastructure.
“I think the council needs to do a better job of making people really aware of that.”
Harvey said he was proud of his time on the council, particularly his transparency and accountability to the community.
Meanwhile, preliminary results in Napier showed Richard McGrath keeping his lead in the mayoral vote by more than 3000 votes.
McGrath was sitting on 9969 votes on Monday with Kirsten Wise on 6509, with only special votes still to be counted.
The preliminary votes also hadn’t changed any council seats.
Roger Brownlie, Keith Price and Sally Crown had won the Ahuriri Ward, while Greg Mawson, Craig Morley and Te Kira Lawrence were at the council table for Napier Central. The closest challenger Iain Bradley, in the Ahuriri Ward, was more than 200 votes behind.
In the Taradale Ward, Graeme Taylor, Ronda Chrystal and Nigel Simpson were through.
The two seats for the Te Whanga Māori Ward were won by Shyann Raihania and Whare Isaac-Sharland Whare.
The voter return in Napier was 44.79% (20,730 votes) with special votes still to come.
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s preliminary results did not show any changes from Saturday’s progress results.
The tightest race continues to be the race for the Tamatea/Central Hawke’s Bay ward, where Tony Kuklinski leads Tim Aitken by just 12 votes.
In Central Hawke’s Bay on Monday, the incumbent councillor for the Aramoana-Ruahine Ward, Kate Taylor, had nudged Simon Collins from a seat on the council, with preliminary votes giving her a total of 1464.
That gave Taylor a narrow lead of 14 votes with special votes still to come.
Will Foley kept his lead in the mayoral race by more than 1500 votes.
Mayoralty votes
SCHOLLUM, Wendy 7007
BUDDO, Marcus 6462
GIBSON, Steve 5693
HARVEY, Damon 5413
WILSON, Darrin 1087
Mōhaka general ward (one vacancy)
NOWELL-USTICKE, Derek 699
GOLDSTONE, Pagen 595
SCOTT-MCLEAN, Kirsty 509
Heretaunga general ward (two vacancies)
As the number of nominations received did not exceed the number of vacancies, Alwyn Corban and Hana Montaperto-Hendry are elected unopposed.
Hastings-Havelock North general ward (seven vacancies)
GIBSON, Steve 7464
FOWLER, Michael 6542
LORKIN, Yvonne 6414
WATKINS, Kevin 5890
ROSS, Callum 5274
NIXON, Simon J.H. 4531
RATCLIFFE, Nick 4415
LATIFF, Rizwaana (Riz) 4387
FREEMAN, Gareth (Gus) 4312
MCELWEE, Lucie-Jane 4033
SUPRA, Jacqueline 3704
WILSON, Darrin 3512
HICKEY, Bernard 3167
ROBEN, Rion 2827
BENNETT, John 2760
WARD, Debbie 2313
AHMED, Sayeed 2004
Flaxmere general ward (one vacancy)
O’KEEFE, Henare 669
HEKE, Henry 530
Kahurānaki general ward (one vacancy)
Elisha Milmine is elected unopposed.
Takitimu Māori ward (three vacancies)
TE AU-SKIPWORTH, Heather 2486
JESSUP, Kellie 1812
DANIEL, Siiam 1143
GREENING, Sarah 1120
O’CONNOR, Bevan 1061
Mayoralty
MCGRATH, Richard 9969
WISE, Kirsten 6509
SIMPSON, Nigel 3882
Ahuriri General Ward (3 vacancies)
BROWNLIE, Roger 3443
PRICE, Keith 2861
CROWN, Sally 2485
BRADLEY, Iain 2252
BURNSIDE, Louise 1913
GOODCHILD, Karl 1772
JOHANSSON, Lyndal 1698
GREIG, Juliet 1438
NEWPORT, Ben 1213
Napier Central General Ward (3 vacancies)
MCGRATH, Richard (Withdrawn)
MAWSON, Greg “Grego” 2972
MORLEY, Craig 2291
LAWRENCE, Te Kira 1934
LEPAIO, Taiatini 1325
Taradale General Ward (3 vacancies)
TAYLOR, Graeme 4463
CHRYSTAL, Ronda 4217
SIMPSON, Nigel 3779
CORNISH, Terry 3036
Te Whanga Māori Ward (2 vacancies)
RAIHANIA, Shyann 984
ISAAC-SHARLAND, Whare 729
LEONARD, Kirk Kia-maia 522
Wairoa Regional Constituency (1 vacancy)
ROADLEY, Di 1115
RANGIRANGI-HAMLIN, Kiri 505
Ahuriri/Napier Regional Constituency (3 vacancies)
KIRTON, Neil 10,599
PARSONS, Louise 9077
ORMSBY, Hinewai 8436
BROWNE, Hayley 7850
BAILEY, Paul 5602
IQBAL, Syed Khurram 4658
Ngāruroro Regional Constituency (1 vacancy)
VAN BEEK, Jerf 4275
ORMOND, Marcus 2523
Tamatea/Central Hawke’s Bay Regional Constituency (1 vacancy)
KUKLINSKI, Tony 2163
AITKEN, Tim 2151
ROPIHA, Keri 867
Heretaunga/Hastings Regional Constituency (3 vacancies)
MACKINTOSH, Jock 9305
SIERS, Sophie 9263
WAITOA, Conrad 7272
MACKAY, Bruce 6476
Māui ki te Raki Māori Regional Constituency (1 vacancy)
MCILROY (NEE LEWIS), Michelle 1772
WHITE, Shelton 987
Māui ki te Tonga Māori Regional Constituency (1 vacancy)
Thompson Hokianga is elected unopposed.
Mayor (1 Vacancy)
Will Foley 3786 (elected)
Alex Walker 2158
At Large (2 Vacancies)
Kelly Annand 2912
Meg Gordon 1850
Stella McDonald 1347
Gerard Minehan 3999
Ruataniwha General Ward (3 Vacancies)
Pip Burne 1452
Todd Chote 1715
Tim Gilbertson 888
Murray Kenderdine 525
Kirsty Lawrence 1112
Jenny Nelson-Smith 479
Ben Revell 154
Graham Stubbs 792
Aramoana-Ruahine General Ward (3 Vacancies)
Simon Collin 1450
Jerry Greer 1697
Brent Muggeridge 1570
Kate Taylor 1464
Rautahi Māori Ward (1 Vacancy)
Te Ata Kura Huata 157
Amiria Nepe Apatu 323
– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.