The Wellington City mayoral election, 2010 is part of the New Zealand local elections, 2010

New Zealand local elections, 2010

The 2010 New Zealand local elections were triennial elections to select local government officials and district health board members. All elections are conducted by postal ballot, with election day being Saturday 9 October 2010.Elected were:...

. On 9 October 2010, elections were held for the Mayor of Wellington

Mayor of Wellington

The Mayor of Wellington is the head of the municipal government of Wellington, New Zealand, and presides over the Wellington City Council. The Mayor of Wellington administers only Wellington City itself — other municipalities in adjacent areas of the Wellington Region such as Lower Hutt, Upper...

 plus other local government roles. Celia Wade-Brown defeated incumbent Kerry Prendergast and four other candidates.

Local government elections

On 9 October 2010, elections will be 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, and for the Capital and Coast District Health Board. There will also be elections for the Greater Wellington Regional Council and the Hutt Mana Charitable Trust.

Local authority elections are held throughout New Zealand triennially and are conducted by postal vote.

Wellington is one of eight local bodies in New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 which uses Single transferable vote

Single transferable vote

The single transferable vote is a voting system designed to achieve proportional representation through preferential voting. Under STV, an elector's vote is initially allocated to his or her most preferred candidate, and then, after candidates have been either elected or eliminated, any surplus or...

 to elect its Councillors and Instant runoff voting to elect its mayor.

Timeline

Nominations open for candidates to formally register with the returning officer on 23 July 2010. Nominations close on 20 Aug 2010. Voting documents will be delivered on 17 Sep 2010.

Under section 10 of the Local Electoral Act 2001, 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 publicly declared that they would contest the mayoralty were the incumbent Kerry Prendergast

Kerry Prendergast

Kerry Leigh Prendergast, CNZM was the 33rd Mayor of Wellington . She was the second woman to serve as Mayor of Wellington, succeeding Mark Blumsky.-Before politics:...

 (who announced that she would want a fourth term back in early 2010 after initially ruling it out), city councillor Celia Wade-Brown

Celia Wade-Brown

Celia Wade-Brown is the 34th and current Mayor of Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. She is the third woman to fill that role, replacing centre-right Kerry Prendergast. She is the second Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand mayor of a major New Zealand city, after Dunedin's Sukhi Turner...

, and Jack Yan

Jack Yan

Jack Yan is a publisher, designer and businessman, born 1972 in Kowloon, Hong Kong.Yan founded his own company in 1987 while a teenager and grew it, initially, into the region's leading font software firm, claiming to be the first New Zealander to design digital typefaces...

. Alan Probert opted not to stand and instead endorsed Wade-Brown. http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/2010/07/one-candidate-less-more-support-for-wade-brown-in-wellington-mayoral-contest/ Several other candidates including Andy Foster, Mr Pepperell and Rob Goulden have announced that they will stand for the mayoralty. http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/local/the-wellingtonian/3941157/Wade-Brown-stands-down 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. http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/local/local-body-elections/4045106/Six-in-Wellington-mayoral-race

	Name	Affiliation (if any)	Notes
	Al Mansell
	Bernard O'Shaughnessy	Coalition and Transition
	Bryan Pepperell	For the Public Interest	Current Southern ward councillor
	Kerry Prendergast	Kerry4Mayor	Incumbent
	Celia Wade-Brown	a good choice for Wellington	Current Southern ward councillor
	Jack Yan

Opinion polls

An opinion poll for the Dominion Post asked on 3 March 2010:

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.

Another online poll conducted by the Dominion Post asked on 25 November 2009:

Who should be Wellington's next mayor?

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

One poll released on 2 October 2010, showed Prendergast with 33% followed by Wade-Brown on 25%. Jack Yan had 9% with Brian Peperell on 8%. http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/local/4190249/Poll-shows-capitals-mayor-in-slight-lead

Result

Celia Wade-Brown won the election in the final round of the instant runoff 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).

External links

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