Byelection for Rotorua community board to go ahead - if needed

RESIGNED: Euan McLachlan has resigned from the council's Rural Community Board. Photo/Supplied

A byelection for the Rural Community Board has been given the go ahead, but any changes to the way the district votes in its next two elections have been put on the back burner.

A byelection could cost the district around $19,000, if required.

Less than a year after he was elected, Rotorua Lakes Council Rural Community Board member Euan McLachlan resigned his position to take up a fulltime role with a local agricultural training organisation.

Mr McLachlan said he could not give the board his full attention and wanted to make way for someone who did.

Councillors at yesterday's meeting gave Mr McLachlan a vote of thanks for his work and agreed to push ahead with the byelection even though it falls during the same period as the country's general election.

It would not go ahead if only one candidate was nominated.

Nominations for the position open on August 3 and close on August 31.

If only one candidate was nominated that person would automatically be elected and take up their role on September 5.

If more than one person was nominated voting papers would start to be delivered on October 5 with the final day for voting October 27.

However, councillors decided not to go ahead with a move to decide on "the method and listing of candidates for a byelection and the electoral system to be used for 2019 and 2022 local elections".

This was due to the fact the voting method would also be used for district's next two elections with some councillors, including Karen Hunt and Dave Donaldson, saying Rotorua should change to a single transferable vote (STV) election system instead of the current first past the post (FPP) system.

STV allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference.

They will also need to decide how names would appear on voting papers - either alphabetical, randomly on each voting document or a pseudo-random option for candidate names on voting documents.

Mayor Steve Chadwick said those sorts of questions should go to the Rotorua community as a whole to decide on.

Councillors agreed to park the issue until a full report had been prepared for the next meeting of the council's strategy, policy and finance committee next month.