Whanganui to retain ‘first past the post’ system for local elections
Published on 29 October 2020
Whanganui District Council will retain ‘first past the post’ as its electoral system, after a binding poll conducted as part of the 2019 local government elections. This will be the electoral system used for the 2022 and 2025 local government elections.
Mayor Hamish McDouall says local authorities are required to carry out a representation review every six years. “In our 2018 review we made some small changes, such as minor changes to some Rural Community Board boundaries and changing the name of the board to reflect consistency and accuracy in the spelling of the name ‘Whanganui’.”
He says the council decided to include the question as part of the local government elections in 2019, in preference to running a separate referendum on the electoral system.
“This way, we reduced costs considerably and potentially engaged more of the community in the questions around representation.”
The question on the preferred electoral system was canvassed through a binding poll, as required under the Local Electoral Act. This asked voters whether they wanted to elect future candidates using the First Past the Post electoral system or the Single Transferable Vote system.
10,608 votes were received for First Past the Post and 2,590 for Single Transferable Voting.
In the same elections, two non-binding polls relating to representation were also held. Voters were asked whether they would prefer a ward system, or for elections to be held ‘at large’ – and whether the number of councillors should remain at 12 or reduce to 10.
Stephanie Macdonald-Rose, Group Manager, Corporate for Whanganui District Council, says “Although the poll on the electoral system was binding, the remaining two poll questions were not. This means the council is able to use the poll data to inform its decision-making, but is not required to take any steps in relation to it.”
In the basis of election poll, 10,373 people voted to retain the ‘at large’ system of representation and 2,327 voted for a ward system. 8,072 voted to reduce the number of councillors to 10 and 5,252 voted for the number to remain at 12.
Councillors attended a workshop to consider the non-binding results in more detail and on 27 October, 2020, they voted to retain the status quo given the higher margin of support for an ‘at large’ system and the relatively small margin of support for reducing the number of councillors.
Stephanie Macdonald-Rose says, “Whanganui District Council’s next representation review is scheduled for 2024. At this time changes can be considered and scoped if desired.”