Wellington City mayoral election, 2010

Wellington City mayoral election, 2010

9 October 2010[1]

Candidate Celia Wade-Brown Kerry Prendergast Jack Yan Party Independent Independent Independent First preferences 18,560 21,809 5,817 First preferences 34.78% 40.86% 10.90% 2-Candidate Preferred 24,881 24,705 2-Candidate Preferred (%) 50.18% 49.82%

Mayor before election Kerry Prendergast Elected Mayor Celia Wade-Brown

The Wellington City mayoral election, 2010 is part of the New Zealand local elections, 2010. On 9 October 2010, elections were held for the Mayor of Wellington plus other local government roles. Sitting Green Party councillor Celia Wade-Brown defeated incumbent mayor Kerry Prendergast and four other candidates.

Local government elections

On 9 October 2010, elections were held for the position of mayor of Wellington, for 14 councillors representing the 5 wards of the city council, for the city's 12 community board representatives, for the Capital and Coast District Health Board, for the Greater Wellington Regional Council and for the Hutt Mana Charitable Trust.^[2]

Local authority elections are held throughout New Zealand triennially and are conducted by postal vote.^[3]

Wellington is one of eight local bodies in New Zealand that uses the Single transferable vote system to elect its Mayor and Councillors.

Timeline

Nominations opened for candidates to register with the returning officer on 23 July 2010.^[4] Nominations close on 20 Aug 2010. Voting documents will be delivered on 17 Sep 2010.

Under section 10 of the Local Electoral Act 2001,^[5] a "general election of members of every local authority or community board must be held on the second Saturday in October in every third year" from the date the Act came into effect in 2001, meaning 9 October 2010. On election day, voting closed at 12 noon.

Candidates

Candidates who declared that they would contest the mayoralty were the incumbent Kerry Prendergast (who announced that she would want a fourth term back in early 2010 after initially ruling it out), city councillor Celia Wade-Brown and Jack Yan. Alan Probert opted not to stand and instead endorsed Wade-Brown. Several other candidates including Andy Foster, Brian Pepperell and Rob Goulden have announced that they will stand for the mayoralty. The final candidates standing in the 2010 election were: Mayor Kerry Prendergast, councillors Celia Wade-Brown and Bryan Pepperell, businessman Jack Yan, Al Mansell and Bernard O'Shaughnessy.

Opinion polls

An opinion poll for the Dominion Post asked on 3 March 2010:^[6]

Would you vote for Kerry Prendergast for a fourth term as Wellington mayor?

25% said that they would vote for her, whilst 44% said that they would not.^[7]

Another online poll conducted by the Dominion Post asked on 25 November 2009:^[8]

Who should be Wellington's next mayor?

As of mid May 2010, 450 people had voted, with Bryan Pepperell achieving 40.3% of the votes, Celia Wade Brown was second with 26.9% and Kerry Prendergast was on 4.0%.^[9]

One poll released on 2 October 2010, showed Prendergast with 33% followed by Wade-Brown on 25%. Jack Yan had 9% with Bryan Peperell on 8%.

Result

Celia Wade-Brown won the election in the final round of the single transferable vote count by 24,881 to 24,705. She was ranked ahead of Kerry Prendergast on a significant number of ballots from the four trailing candidates after they were eliminated, which allowed her to overcome Prendergast's lead after the first round of counting (21,809 to 18,560),^[10] although Kerry Prendergast was leading by 40 votes before special votes were counted. ^[11]

Wellington mayoral election, 2010
Candidate	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4	Count 5
YCelia Wade-Brown	18,560	18,675	19,002	21,422	24,881
Kerry Prendergast (incumbent)	21,809	21,863	22,021	22,899	24,705
Jack Yan	5,817	5,924	6,144	7,426
Bryan Pepperell	5,560	5,652	5,954
Bernard O'Shaughnessy	1,081	1,174
Al Mansell	542
Electorate: 135,556   Valid: 53,369   Spoilt: 1,005   Quota: 26,685   Turnout: 54,374 (40.11%)

References

Mayors of Wellington City
Mayors	elected by councillors George Hunter William Guyton Joseph Dransfield Charles Borlase William Sefton Moorhouse elected at large William Hutchison Joseph Dransfield George Allen William Hutchison George Fisher Arthur Winton Brown Samuel Brown John Duthie Charles Johnston Arthur Winton Brown Francis Bell Alfred Brandon Charles Luke George Fisher Francis Bell John Blair John Aitken Thomas William Hislop Alfred Newman Thomas Wilford David McLaren John Luke Robert Wright Charles Norwood George Troup Thomas Hislop Will Appleton Rob Macalister Frank Kitts Michael Fowler Ian Lawrence James Belich Fran Wilde Mark Blumsky Kerry Prendergast Celia Wade-Brown Justin Lester
Mayoral elections	Annual term 1875 1876† 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 Biennial term 1899 1901 1903† 1905 1907 1909 1910‡ 1911† 1912‡ 1913 1915 1917† 1919 1921 1923 1925 1927 1929 1931 1933† Triennial term 1935 1938 1941 1944 1947 1950 1953 1956 1959 1962 1965 1968 1971 1974 1977 1980 1983 1986 1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010 2013 2016
† Elected unopposed · ‡ By-election

External links

• Elections New Zealand - Local Elections
• 2010 Wellington Elections
• Wellington City Council watch