Local election nominations open

Anyone wanting to stand in the local government elections later this year has one month to get their nominations in. The nomination period opens tomorrow, Friday 15 July, and closes at midday on Friday 12 August.

All Far North residents, and anyone who owns a property in the district, will receive voting papers from 16 September. The postal vote closes on Saturday 8 October.

There will be several important differences to this year’s Far North District Council (FNDC) elections with 10 councillors up for election – one more than previously. Four of those will be Māori ward councillors. These changes were adopted following a representation review undertaken in 2021. This introduced a new Māori ward, Ngā Tai o Tokerau, with four councillors to be elected at large by voters on the Māori Electoral Roll. In recognition of growth in the Waipapa area, a new community board subdivision was created in the Bay of Islands-Whangaroa Ward.

The way electors select candidates will also be different. This election, FNDC will use Single Transferable Voting, or STV, to elect its representatives. STV is a proportional system where voters rank candidates in order of preference. Voters can select multiple candidates with their most preferred marked as 1 and their next preference marked as 2 and so on. The previous First Past the Post (FPP) system allowed voters to pick only one candidate for each position.

In all, 30 elected positions are up for selection, including the Mayor, 10 councillors, and 19 community board members. To be eligible to stand, a candidate must be:

• A New Zealand citizen
• Enrolled as a Parliamentary elector anywhere in New Zealand, either on the general or Māori electoral roll (regardless of the ward being nominated for)
• Nominated by two electors on the electoral roll in the area the candidate intends standing in. 

The council will be holding a series of information evenings to help answer questions for potential candidates intending to submit nominations. The sessions will be held in Kaitāia, Kawakawa and Kaikohe between 25 July and 3 August and will detail the election process, what elected representatives do, the pay, and what happens if candidates are elected.

An online event will also be held next Wednesday 20 July from 5pm. Anyone wanting to learn more about the elections can log onto the livestream panel discussion to find out more about the election process, the difference between district and regional councils, and what councillors do. The panel will include community leaders and election experts. To find out more about the candidate evenings, or to pose a question to the online panel, go to the Candidate information page on the FNDC website.