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Election results on a knife-edge u by Andy Bryenton
Following a long campaign and tense wait on election day for initial results to trickle in, candidates for the mayoralty of Kaipara are in limbo this week, with the outcome to be decided by the counting of the special votes.
Principal’s welcome a homecoming Curtis Gaylor returned to Dargaville High School last Monday, not as a student or the parent of a student, but as …
P3 p Of the four contenders for the Kaipara mayoralty, three stand within only 31 votes of each other at publication time
Election arguments and allegations addressed It has been a campaign season of rhetorical battles, policy clashes and sometimes fiery debate as four …
P5
Kaipara and Ghana in harmony Josie Scott and Graeme Ramsey of Baylys Beach have returned from a 10th excursion to Ghana in West Africa …
P7
Between Saturday afternoon, when 90 per cent of ordinary votes were counted, and Sunday, when all but the special votes had been processed, the tally swung, switching the leaders and contenders in races for council seats and the mayoralty. At time of publication, mayoralty candidate Jonathan Larsen, holds out a narrow lead of five votes, with 3,070, ahead of Snow Tane, on 3,065. Mr Tane had trailed by 52 votes on Saturday, but closed the gap by the end of the weekend, with a week of special vote counting to go. Both candidates are trailed by a very small margin by Jason Smith, who with 3,039 votes is just 31 away from taking the mayoralty himself. Ash Nayyar, the fourth mayoral candidate, is back on 1,256 votes at this stage. Rachael Williams, in the KaiwakaMangawhai Ward, has a comfortable lead with 1,968 votes currently, with former mayor Craig Jepson and political newcomer Luke Canton at 1,693 and 1,651 votes, respectively. The nearest contender to flip one of these three seats is Helen Price, with 1,460 votes. It’s a similar cliffhanger in the remaining two
wards of Kaipara. In Ōtamatea, Mike Schimanski was ahead on 807 votes. He’s trailed by incumbent Mark Vincent, on 737, and Fiona Kemp on 734. That means there’s just three votes between a seat on the council and defeat for Mr Vincent and Ms Kemp. The three seats of the Wairoa Ward have changed overnight between Saturday and Sunday. Currently, Snow Tane is the runaway victor, with 2,400 votes, followed by Joesephine Nathan on 1,413. Tangiterōria resident Jan Beatty and incumbent councillor Gordon Lambeth have switched places since voting began. Beatty currently sits just outside of the council with 1,311 votes to Lambeth’s 1,315, in a four-vote margin. Also in striking distance, as special votes begin to come in, is Pera Paniora, another incumbent councillor, who is just 29 votes away from securing another term. In the Northland Regional Council elections, John Hunt leads long-serving councillor Rick Stolwerk in the Coastal South Constituency, with 3,148 votes to 2,615. John Blackwell has pulled ahead by a large margin in Kaipara, with 5,508
votes, ahead of Lorraine Norris on 1,743. In the Te Raki Māori Constituency, Pita Tipene has 6,113 votes, with Arama Morunga on 4,933, and incumbent councillor Tui Shortland back on 3,446, behind Peter Lucas-Jones on 3,642. However, the vote to retain or remove the Māori constituency has returned a close challenge. At the time of publication, the vote to disestablish it sat at 30,967, with supporters of retention polling at 29,589. Neighbouring councils have also gone to the polls. Auckland’s sitting mayor Wayne Brown is ahead by a wide margin, and the Far North District Council may once again be led by Moko Tepania, who is currently ahead of Ann Court by 3,600 votes. In Whangārei, incumbent Vince Cocurullo trails Ken Couper by 307 votes, still in a very close race as special votes begin to come in. There, as in Kaipara, candidates await the final count on Friday, October 17, with tight races, such as those for the mayoralty and in the Wairoa and Ōtamatea wards, far from being decided until the last ballot is recorded. ¢
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