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: * Mayors and councillors for all 67 territorial authority councils * Councillors for 10 regional councils, (all regional councils had elections except

Canterbury Regional Council Environment Canterbury, frequently abbreviated to ECan, is the promotional name for the Canterbury Regional Council. It is the Regions of New Zealand, regional council for Canterbury, New Zealand, Canterbury, the largest region in the South Is ...

, and the

Auckland Regional Council The Auckland Regional Council (ARC) was the regional council (one of the former local government authorities) of the Auckland Region. Its predecessor the Auckland Regional Authority (ARA) was formed in 1963 and became the ARC in 1989. The ARC ...

which will be replaced by the

Auckland Council Auckland Council () is the local government council for the Auckland Region in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority that also has the responsibilities, duties and powers of a regional council and so is a unitary authority, according to t ...

) * Members of all 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) * Members for all 21 local boards of the

* Various local and community boards and licensing trusts. Except for all DHBs and six territorial authorities, officials were elected by the

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 ...

system. Members of DHBs and mayors and councillors in six territorial authorities, including

Wellington City Wellington is Capital of New Zealand, the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the List of cities in New Zealand, third-largest city ...

and Dunedin City, were elected using the

Single Transferable Vote The single transferable vote (STV) or proportional-ranked choice voting (P-RCV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote in the form of a ranked ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vot ...

system.

Dates

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. Key dates for the election as set out by the Local Government Commission and Elections New Zealand are:

Changes in 2010

Auckland Council

This was the first time elections were held for the new Auckland Council, and the 2010 Auckland mayoral election took place concurrently.

Canterbury Regional Council

The 2010 elections did not include

. In March 2010, the National Government passed special legislation deferring Canterbury Regional Council's election until 2013 and replacing the existing councillors with appointed commissioners.

Southern District Health Board

The 2010 elections were the first for the Southern District Health Board, which was formed from the merger of the

Otago Otago (, ; ) is a regions of New Zealand, region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local go ...

and Southland DHBs on 1 May 2010. The Southern DHB had 14 members from the two former boards, but was reduced to the standard seven elected members after the election.

Leftward shift

There was a notable leftward shift in the local elections throughout the country and many notable long term centre-right mayors were replaced by left-wing mayors throughout the country. In the new position of Auckland supermayor,

Manukau City Manukau City was a territorial authority district in Auckland, New Zealand, that was governed by the Manukau City Council. The area is also referred to as "South Auckland", although this term never possessed official recognition and does not ...

mayor Len Brown a Labour party politician replaced centre-right Auckland City mayor John Banks. In Wellington, Green Party candidate Celia Wade-Brown replaced right leaning,

Kerry Prendergast Dame Kerry Leigh Prendergast (née Ferrier; born 28 March 1953) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 33rd Mayor of Wellington between 2001 and 2010, succeeding Mark Blumsky. She was the second woman to hold the position, after Fran W ...

. As well as at the provincial levels new left-wing mayors replaced retiring incumbents in Wanganui and New Plymouth and incumbent mayors like that of Janie Annear in Timaru defeated conservative challengers.

Individual elections

Elections are split into their respective regions: *

Auckland region Auckland () is one of the 16 regions of New Zealand, which takes its name from the eponymous urban areas of New Zealand, urban area. The region encompasses the Auckland, Auckland metropolitan area, smaller towns, rural areas, and the islands o ...

Wellington region Greater Wellington, also known as the Wellington Region (Māori language, Māori: ''Te Upoko o te Ika''), is the southernmost regions of New Zealand, region of the North Island of New Zealand. The local government region covers an area of , and ...

Dunedin City Council The Dunedin City Council () is the Local government in New Zealand, local government authority for Dunedin in New Zealand. It is a Territorial authorities of New Zealand, territorial authority elected to represent the people of Dunedin. Since O ...

Notable elections

* Auckland mayoral – The first mayoral election for the new Auckland Council was won by incumbent

mayor Len Brown with 221,365 votes over incumbent Auckland City mayor John Banks by 60,198 votes. * Rangitikei mayoral – For the first time in 21 years a mayor would be re-elected unopposed in the Rangitikei District as mayor Chalky Leary was re-elected without challenge. * Wellington City mayoral – At the end of election night, incumbent

was ahead by 40 votes over city councillor Celia Wade-Brown. On the Wednesday following the election, after the counting of 632 special votes, Celia Wade-Brown beat incumbent Kerry Prendergast by a total of 176 votes, 24,881 to 24,705 votes, with voter turnout of 40.11 percent, a slight increase on the 2007 election turnout of 40 percent. * Christchurch mayoral – Incumbent Bob Parker won with 68,245 votes, a majority of 16,679 over Wigram MP

Jim Anderton James Patrick Anderton (born Byrne; 21 January 1938 – 7 January 2018) was a New Zealand politician who led a succession of Left-wing politics, left-wing parties after leaving the New Zealand Labour Party, Labour Party in 1989. Anderton's pol ...

. Initially second-place to Anderton, the vote swung in Parker's favour after his response and unintentional publicity following the 2010 Canterbury earthquake that damaged the city five weeks to the day before the election. * Dunedin mayoral – City councillor Dave Cull won with 22,382 votes at the last iteration (21,757 first preference), defeating incumbent Peter Chin, who received 14,453 votes at last iteration (14,084 first preference). * Invercargill mayoral – Incumbent Tim Shadbolt won with 16,275 votes, a majority of 10,964 over singer Suzanne Prentice.

Notes

References

External links

Elections New Zealand
– Local Elections
Local Elections 2010
– information for voters
2010 elections
at the

Auckland City Council Auckland City Council was the local government authority for Auckland City, New Zealand, from 1989 to 1 November 2010, when it and Auckland's six other city and district councils were amalgamated to form the Auckland Council. It was an elec ...

2010 election results summary
{{New Zealand elections, state=autocollapse * October 2010 in New Zealand