Local elections 2025: Biggest wins and closest calls as special votes loom

Special votes are yet to be counted, meaning that for a number of races, dramatic changes could still be in store. Photo / Sarah Ivey

The results from Saturday’s local body elections are in, with two races where mayors waltzed into office with more than seven times the votes of their closest rival, while another is holding a nail-biting lead of only four votes.

The Herald has analysed the most resounding wins, and the closest calls, from the published preliminary and progress first past the post results. Final results are expected to be published by Friday.

Special votes are yet to be counted, meaning that for a number of races, dramatic changes could still be in store.

On the numbers alone, Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown can claim the strongest majority in the country, with about 90,000 votes more than the second-placed candidate, Kerrin Leoni. His result reflects the super city’s more than 270,000 residents who voted this election.

By calculating the ratio between the successful candidates result and their runner-up, it is the Hauraki District’s Toby Adams who won by the greatest ratio of votes in the country.

Adams, who is now heading into his third term leading the Hauraki District, received 4694 votes, while second-placed Roman Jackson only secured 622, giving Adams 7.5 votes for every vote cast for Jackson.

Asked about his convincing win, Adams responded with a celebratory “woohoo”, saying he was not aware he had won with such a margin.

Mayor Toby Adams shows off an environmental initiative: new orange recycling bins, a clean, cut-up carton, ready for the bin, and the finished low-carbon, upcycled building product from saveBoard.

“Hauraki always punches well above its weight,” he said. “It’s quite pleasing, quite humbling”.

Adams said he was confident he would win, but did not expect such a result, noting incumbent mayors have the advantage of having the profile to effectively campaign throughout their term.

In the Grey District, Tania Gibson received 7.2 votes for every vote cast for her rival, the Money Free Party New Zealand’s Richard Osmaston.

Osmaston ran for mayor in five districts, losing each race.

This analysis only considers first past the post (FPP) races as single transferable vote (STV) races are not directly comparable. However, one STV race stood out from the rest. In Marlborough, incumbent Nadine Taylor received 13,149 votes more than 16 times her closest rival Shaun Brown.

The closest race, both by numbers alone and ratio of votes, was for the Westland District Council leadership, with Hokitika businesswoman Jacquie Grant named mayor-elect on a tight four-vote lead over the incumbent, Helen Lash.

Jacquie Grant is the Westland District Mayor-elect but is ahead by only four votes.

But Grant is not celebrating yet, saying in a post on Facebook “the election is not a done deal”.

She said until special votes are counted on Thursday, “it is a waiting game”.

At 82 years old, a victory would make Grant the country’s oldest mayor and the second transgender mayor after the late Georgina Beyer.

Among those provisionally elected with the closest numbers is Whakatāne District Mayor-elect Nándor Tánczos, who was ahead of the incumbent, Victor Luca, by only 96 votes.

Nándor Tánczos.

Luca was first announced the winner on progress results, but he’s been overtaken by Tánczos on the new numbers.

The former Green Party MP, who gained attention for being the first Rastafarian MP and skateboarding to work at Parliament, said on social media that while there are still 500 special votes to count, he does not expect the result to change.

This story was updated to include Marlborough District Council’s STV race.

Chris Knox is a scientist turned data-journalist who investigates the stories behind the numbers, and creates interactives for Herald readers to explore them.

Ethan Manera is a Wellington-based journalist covering Wellington issues, local politics and business in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz.