Independent Citizens are a local-body political ticket in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

, New Zealand. They contest seats on the

Christchurch City Council The Christchurch City Council (CCC) is the local government authority for Christchurch in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority elected to represent the people of Christchurch. Since October 2022, the Mayor of Christchurch is Phil Ma ...

and on the city's community boards. The group's members lean centre-right politically. The group serves as the main group for the city's right wing, acting in opposition to the city's centre-left group The People's Choice.

Positions and platform

The group advocates for traditional centre-right positions, such as lowering rates and spending only on "the basics". According to Independent Citizens councillor Sam MacDonald, the group's constitution forbids

whipping Flagellation (Latin , 'whip'), flogging or whipping is the act of beating the human body with special implements such as whips, rods, switches, the cat o' nine tails, the sjambok, the knout, etc. Typically, flogging has been imposed on ...

of group members to vote a certain way. The group is associated with 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 ...

, though this association is not official.

Elected members

For the 2022–2025 term, the group had two elected members, James Gough (Fendalton ward) and Sam MacDonald (Waimairi ward). They also had six community board members.

References

{{Ref list Politics of Christchurch Political groupings in New Zealand