The Chatham Islands Council is the local government authority for the

Chatham Islands The Chatham Islands ( ; Moriori language, Moriori: , 'Misty Sun'; ) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about east of New Zealand's South Island, administered as part of New Zealand, and consisting of about 10 islands within an approxima ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. The council has many of the functions, duties and powers of a district council and of a regional council, making it in effect a

unitary authority A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...

with slightly fewer responsibilities than other unitary authorities.

History

The Chatham Islands was incorporated into the

Colony of New Zealand The Colony of New Zealand was a colony of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom from 1841 to 1907. British authority was vested in a List of governors-general of New Zealand, governor. The colony had Capital of New Zea ...

by the British in 1842. The first local government set up on the islands was the Chatham Islands Māori Council in 1900. Chatham Islands County was established in 1901, though the Chatham Islands County Council was not established until 1926. Succeeding the county council, the Chatham Islands Council was established by the Chatham Islands Council Act 1995 (Statute No 041, Commenced: 1 November 1995) to administer the Chatham Islands and the adjoining sea, known as the "Chatham Islands Territory".

Composition

The Chatham Islands Council comprises a mayor and eight councillors, all elected

at-large At large (''before a noun'': at-large) is a description for members of a governing body who are elected or appointed to represent a whole membership or population (notably a city, county, state, province, nation, club or association), rather tha ...

by a

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. Monique Croon was first elected as mayor in the 2019 local elections. At the 2022 local elections, since the number of candidates did not exceed the number of vacancies, the candidates for the councillors were declared elected without an election being held.

References

External links

Official website
{{Chatham Islands Local government in New Zealand Chatham Islands 1926 establishments in New Zealand 1995 establishments in New Zealand