The 2013 New Zealand local elections were triennial elections to elect local government officials and District Health Board members, and the membership of other local bodies such as Licensing Trusts. All elections were conducted by

postal ballot An absentee ballot is a vote cast by someone who is unable or unwilling to attend the official polling station to which the voter is normally allocated. Methods include voting at a different location, postal voting, proxy voting and online voti ...

, with election day being Saturday 12 October 2013.

Electoral systems

The local elections were held using postal ballot. Most city and district councils and all but one regional council used the

first-past-the-post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...

(FPP) voting system, with the exception of the following six city and district councils that used the

single transferable vote Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...

(STV) voting system: *

Dunedin City Council The Dunedin City Council ( mi, Kaunihera ā-Rohe o Ōtepoti) is the local government authority for Dunedin in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority elected to represent the people of Dunedin. Since October 2022, the Mayor of Dunedin is Ju ...

* Kapiti Coast District Council * Marlborough District Council * Palmerston North City Council * Porirua City Council *

Wellington City Council Wellington City Council is a territorial authority in New Zealand, governing the country's capital city Wellington, and ''de facto'' second-largest city (if the commonly considered parts of Wellington, the Upper Hutt, Porirua, Lower Hutt and ...

The Wellington Regional Council was the sole regional council using the STV system.

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

and Kaipara District were under statutory management and no elections were held. All District Health Boards used the STV system.

Timeline

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 12 October 2013. Key dates for the election as set out by the Electoral Commission are: Political commentator Vernon Small thought that the government would likely try and combine the local elections with the asset sales referendum, but this did not happen. Instead, the referendum was held via postal ballot between 22 November and 13 December.

Mayoral elections

;Notes:

References

{{New Zealand elections, state=autocollapse Local 2013 2013 in New Zealand October 2013 events in New Zealand

Electoral systems

Timeline

Mayoral elections

See also

References