The 1962 Wellington City mayoral election was part of the New Zealand local elections held that same year. In 1962, elections were held for the

Mayor of Wellington The mayor of Wellington is the head of the municipal government of Wellington, the city of Wellington. The mayor presides over the Wellington City Council. The mayor is directly elected using the Single Transferable Vote method of proportional ...

plus other local government positions including fifteen city councillors. The polling was conducted using the standard

first-past-the-post First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or First-preference votes, first-preference, and the cand ...

electoral method.

Background

Incumbent mayor

Frank Kitts Sir Francis Joseph Kitts (1 May 1912 – 16 March 1979) was a New Zealand politician. Originally from the South Island, he served in the military and later was a civil servant before entering politics with the Labour Party. He was the Member o ...

was re-elected decisively for a third term over deputy mayor Bill Arcus, substantially increasing his majority. Initially Sam Barnett, the former Secretary of Justice and Controller-General of Police, was to be the Citizens' Association nomination for the mayoralty but he withdrew his nomination at the last minute.

Bill Young William, Will, Bill or Billy Young may refer to: Arts and entertainment * William Young (composer) (died 1662), English composer and viola da gambist * William Young (architect) (1843–1900), Scottish architect, designer of Glasgow City Chambe ...

, an executive member of the electorate committee of the

National Party National Party or Nationalist Party may refer to: Active parties * National Party of Australia, commonly known as ''The Nationals'' * Bangladesh: ** Bangladesh Nationalist Party ** Jatiya Party (Ershad) a.k.a. ''National Party (Ershad)'' * Californ ...

was also approached to stand for mayor, but after giving consideration to doing so, he declined to stand. The election was also notable due to the success of Ralph Love, who became the first Maori candidate to be elected as a city councillor in Wellington's history.

John Jeffries John Jeffries (5 February 1744 – 16 September 1819 using Old Style Dating, 5 February 1745 – 16 September 1819 using New Style) was an American physician, scientist, and military surgeon with the British Army in Nova Scotia and New York du ...

was also the youngest-ever candidate elected as a councillor (at that time) at age 33.

Mayoralty results

Councillor results

Table footnotes:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wellington City Mayoral Election, 1962 Mayoral elections in Wellington 1962 elections in New Zealand Politics of the Wellington Region 1960s in Wellington October 1962 in Oceania