The margins in two close Rotorua election ward races have widened, preliminary results released today show.
The updated results, which include votes cast on Saturday, show no changes as to who would make up the next council.
Progress tallies released on Saturday showed Tania Tapsell retaining the mayoralty, while Fisher Wang, Sandra Kai Fong, Ben Sandford, Gregg Brown, Don Paterson and Robert Lee were elected as general ward councillors.
Current councillor Conan O’Brien is now trailing Lee by 250 votes for the last vacancy on the ward - a margin increase of 159.
In the Māori ward, newcomer Te Rika Temara-Benfell is set to join incumbent Trevor Maxwell and Merepeka Raukawa-Tait, who was voted out of her general ward seat in 2022 after about a decade on the council.
Electoral officer Warwick Lampp estimated that, after validation checks, there would be roughly 400 special votes in the general ward and 240 in the Māori ward to be added in the final results.
Raukawa-Tait now has a 60-vote lead - up from 50 votes - over current councillor Rawiri Waru for the final seat on the ward.
Raukawa-Tait said it would be an “unnerving” wait for the final results but she remained “quietly optimistic” about her chances.
She was especially looking forward to hopefully working again with long-time council colleague Maxwell, who she called “the ambassador supreme for Rotorua”.
Waru said he was “just happy the Māori ward is still in”.
He was comfortable if the final results did not go his way, as the other candidates were strong and he was “already a pretty busy fulla” with other community and trust roles.
“You win some, you lose some.”
Preliminary results showed 10,921 voted to keep Māori Wards, with 8335 voting to remove.
They showed Tapsell had increased her vote count to 12,020 - more than 9000 votes ahead of second-place candidate Don Paterson, up from a margin of about 7000 in the first results.
The voter return was 42.13%, being 21,102 votes, excluding special votes.
Final results, including special votes, are expected on Thursday.
Tapsell has said she is “honoured” and “humbled” to have been re-elected as Rotorua Mayor for a second term.
Tapsell received the call on Saturday from Rotorua Lakes Council chief executive Andrew Moraes while she was at home with her family, a contrast to the party atmosphere when she was first elected in 2022.
She later presented an opening address at the Tompkins Wake Rotorua Business Awards.
“We worked really hard in the past three years,” she told the attendees.
Sandford, who previously ran against Tapsell for the mayoralty in 2022, received his call at 2am.
The former Winter Olympian is in Germany as part of his work with the World Anti-Doping Agency but he said it was “nice to be woken up” to the news.
“I’m looking forward to being involved with the council and making a positive contribution.”
He said he had “a good relationship” with Tapsell.
“I’m sure we’ll work well together.
“I am looking forward to what the council is going to be working on and getting involved and representing the community.”
Temara-Benfell becomes the council’s youngest sitting member. Speaking to Local Democracy Reporting from Australia’s Gold Coast on a post-campaign vacation, he said he was “humbled” to have come out on top of the Māori ward voting and expressed his “gratitude” to his voters and iwi.
“I’ll come with my best foot forward,” he said. “I’m looking forward to working with all of the councillors across the table and I’m really excited.”
Based on preliminary results, newcomers Raj Kumar and Anna Grayling will be the Rotorua Constituency councillors on the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, ousting long-serving councillor Lyall Thurston.
Allan Iwi Te Whau is set to be the new Ōkūrei Māori constituency councillor, meaning Te Taru White loses his seat.
Preliminary results for Tauranga’s constituency have Stuart Crosby, Tim Maltby, Glenn Dougal, Kate Graeme and Kat McMillian taking the five seats available, John Scrimgeour and Ken Shirley taking Western Bay and Malcolm Campbell and Sarah van der Boom taking Eastern Bay.
Marewa Karetai and Matemoana McDonald have won the Kōhi and Mauao Māori seats, respectively.
Nándor Tánczos has been announced as mayor-elect of Whakatāne, edging out incumbent Victor Luca who was leading by 19 votes on Saturday.
The Whakatāne mayoralty race has been a tight one with progress results reporting a narrow margin between the two.
However, after Sunday’s preliminary results were released, Tánczos gained an extra 903 votes — going from 2704 to 3607.
Luca’s results went from 2723 to 3511 — only gaining 788 — not enough to hold on to the lead.
The final result will be confirmed on Friday.
- Additional reporting Mathew Nash, Local Democracy Reporting. LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.