Ele Ludemann: Local democracy is broken

The headline says local election votes significantly up from 2022:

Voting numbers so far for this month’s local body elections are significantly higher than what they were in the lead up to the last elections.

Figures as at 1 October 2025 – 10 days before election day – showed that 622,936 votes had been returned to date, representing just over 18 percent of eligible votes.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Are we asking too much in local body elections?

We need to talk about why we're persisting with having so many local body politicians.

We clearly have too many positions, don't we? I mean, just look at how many people are winning their seats at the moment.

The elections are this weekend - look at how many people are winning their seats without any elections, without anybody standing against them. With more than 200, that's 1 in every 7 council races.

NZCPR Newsletter: Fighting Elections

Two years ago, we were counting the days to the 14 October General Election. With the left-leaning legacy media in overdrive – promoting the parties on the left and attacking those on the centre-right, New Zealanders desperate for change were anxiously wondering whether enough was being done to overthrow Labour.

The problem was that Jacinda Ardern and her ‘we are the sole source of truth’ ruling elite had not only crushed our rights during those Covid years but were radically changing our culture too. By forcing He Puapua – their secret agenda to replace democracy with tribal rule – onto the country without any public mandate whatsoever, Kiwis had lost faith in Government and were looking for parties willing to dismantle the political establishment and give them their country back.

Clive Bibby: Are Maori Wards about to become a dot on the Timeline of History

I have always thought that the introduction of Maori Wards was a naked attack on the democratic institution of government in this country.

It was based on a false premise that people claiming to be of Maori decent were underrepresented in the corridors of power at all levels throughout the nation.

John MacDonald: Here's how to get more people voting in local body elections

You can call me a nerd, if you want to. But I reckon there is nothing like the performance of walking down to your local polling booth on voting day and casting your vote.

The way we do every three years when we’re electing a Government. In the general election.

Frank Newman: Ugly racial politics

The debate regarding Maori wards is divisive and could be very ugly when it comes into focus ahead of next year's local body elections.  Intimidation by Maori is already present to varying degrees and especially ramped up when the radicals sense they may lose their racial privilege, as was the case with the Kaipara District Council.

The referendums on Maori wards to be held in tandem with the local elections is a critical moment for the future of race-based representation. The result will either embed them for a very long time or challenge their place in a democratic society.  Although Maori wards have been available to councils for 20 or so years, it was Nanaia Mahuta’s tapestry of lies to take away the petition right that removed the barrier to their introduction.

Clive Bibby: Equality of opportunity

Equality of opportunity is more important than a gerrymandered access to a seat at the Council table.  

Much of the public row being fought in local communities about indigenous rights to representation at the Council table is an irritant that will probably be a short term distraction that will end as quickly as it started even in provinces where those claiming Maori ancestry have a numerical advantage on both rolls.

Once the law governing local body elections is redrafted allowing things to return to the way they were before 2021, a full electoral vote will be required before a Council can introduce Maori Wards although those that are already in place will have a stay of execution until the 2028 local body elections.

So a little crystal ball gazing - what could happen next.

Roger Childs: A Maori Ward for Kapiti? An Emphatic “NO”!

It’s important that we hear from mana whenua and the wider community ahead of making a decision on whether to make this change to our representation arrangements. Kapiti Coast District Council Mayor, Janet Holborow

A foregone conclusion

The Mayor says that the feedback would not be binding but would “inform” the Kapiti Coast District Council’s (KCDC) decision. That says to me – it’s going to happen - so no-one needs to give their feed back to KCDC because a separate Maori ward is a fait accompli.

NZCPR Newsletter: Message to the PM

The local elections sent the Prime Minister and her Labour Party a message: “We don’t want you anymore”.

The resounding defeat of the two Labour mayoral contenders she had publicly backed – Efeso Collins in Auckland and sitting MP Paul Eagle in Wellington – demonstrated only too clearly how the PM’s endorsement has turned into a ‘kiss of death’ for candidates.

This ‘swing to the right’ across the country is bad news for the Labour Party’s 2023 election chances. The results mirrored what the polls have been saying for some time now – that the electorate has fallen out of love with Jacinda Ardern. They are now treating her with the contempt she deserves. Not only has she undermined democracy by inflicting her unmandated tribal rule agenda onto the country, but ‘trust’ in her Government has evaporated as almost everything she touches turns into failure.

Matthew Birchall: Locals know best

It might not have been a vote of no-confidence in local government, but it was far from an enthusiastic endorsement of the status quo.

In 2019, 42% of eligible local voters cast a ballot. This year, the proportion dropped to 36%.

Those who did turn up turfed out incumbent mayors in Wellington and Dunedin. In Auckland and Christchurch, where the mayors did not stand for re-election, voters opted for change.

Ross Meurant: Mandarin’s Rule - Politicians Play the Fool.

Across New Zealand, local body election results demonstrated a swing to the political right.

Replacing left leaning elected representatives with right leaning elected representatives, may slow down and even temporarily stop the rot, but changing the politicians is only part of the plan, if New Zealand is going to avoid becoming another Zimbabwe or South Africa.

Reassuringly, Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has already delivered a powerful message as to who’s in command of Auckland (1) which hopefully debunks the following opinion.

Who rules?  Elected Representative or Permanent Bureaucrats.

Bryce Edwards: No confidence in dire local govt elections

The “No Confidence” vote in local body elections could be as high as 60 per cent by the end of this week. That’s essentially what it is when only 40 per cent of the public choose to vote, which is what is happening at the moment. In fact, voter turnout is trending lower, meaning New Zealand could be headed for a record low voter turnout (and hence a record no confidence vote in politicians).

The reality is clear: the vast majority of the public are not inspired by what’s on offer from candidates across the country and voters aren’t convinced that voting in local elections really matters.

Grant Duncan: Remote Control

With local body elections currently underway, democracy makes its triennial appearance in New Zealand’s towns and cities once again. But elections alone don’t automatically make for democratic governance at street level. And this is particularly true of Auckland.

Since the unification of regional, city and district councils in 2010, the so-called “super city” has been run by a single Auckland Council.

NZCPR Newsletter: Local Body Election Exposé

Local body elections are well under way.

Nominations have closed and ballot papers will be delivered from the middle of next month.

Voting closes at midday on October 8 and preliminary results will be known shortly after. The final results will be declared a week or so later.  

In some local authority areas, competition is fierce, while in other areas, it’s been a struggle to get people to put their names forward.

One well-contested election is the race to lead the country’s largest city, where 23 candidates are standing for the Auckland Mayoralty.

Kate Hawkesby: Local Body Elections are coming up, will you be voting?

 

Do you know we can start voting for our mayors and local councillors in about a month's time? Are you going to?

Apathy is the problem with local body elections. Always has been.

We don’t know who anyone is, we can’t be bothered, we don’t care.

But actually, we do care about our communities don't we? Don’t we care about what's happening to our local shops and our streets at the moment?

Tony Orman: Beware Self-Serving Councillors

Elections are basically about the public electing their representatives whether it  be central or local government. With local government elections now in full swing, voters have to assess policies and the intentions of candidates in terms of their duty of serving the public’s best interests. 

But sadly the reality is a significant number of parliamentary and local council politicians are not there to represent the voting public and the public interest. Perhaps outwardly they don’t realise it, but inwardly and sub-consciously they are in denial that they are elected by the people to serve the public interest.

Karl du Fresne: Can Wellington rediscover its lost mojo

I spent a couple of hours wandering the streets of downtown Wellington this week. What a dismal experience.

Actually, it was worse than dismal. It was profoundly depressing. The city where I spent most of my working life looks as if it has lost the will to live.

John Key got into a lot of trouble in 2013 for saying Wellington was a dying city. It seemed a preposterous statement then, but if Key said it today, I could only agree.

Absolutely Positively Wellington? That was the city’s confident – you might say brash – slogan in the 1990s. Now it sounds like a black joke. Ditto the phrase “Coolest little capital in the world”, which is how Lonely Planet (not an authoritative guide, even at the best of times) dubbed the city in 2014.

NZCPR Weekly: Local Democracy2019

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we review the local body elections and highlight some concerns – including a campaign to lower the voting age, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Gerry Eckhoff exposes the anti-democratic decision by the former Otago Regional Council to appoint unelected and unaccountable Ngai Tahu representatives with full voting rights onto the council committee dealing with freshwater allocation, and our poll asks whether you would support the voting age being lowered to 16.

*To read the newsletter click HERE.
*To register for the NZCPR Weekly mailing list, click HERE.  

Frank Newman: No-show by voters

The coroners report into the 2019 elections will no doubt include a comment about the state of our local democracy: "Vital signs critically low. Bradycardia and bradypnea evident". In other words, voter interest is so low that the majority of folk can't be bothered voting. 

That is particularly relevant for the Auckland mayoralty race where it was essentially a choice between the former Labour Party Minister Phil Goff or the former Labour Party minister John Tamahere. Preliminary figures indicate the turnout is around 35%. The turnout is low virtually everywhere; more than 50% is considered good. The turnout for the Far North and Whangarei District councils is likely to be around 45%.

Bryce Edwards: Will more than a third vote in the local government elections?

The election race is on. The nominations process for local government positions has now closed, and the political campaign is officially underway. But does the public care? Will many of us even vote for any of the various mayoral or council candidates?

Going on recent experience, we shouldn’t expect many more than a third of eligible voters to actually cast a vote in local government elections this year. After all, at the last round of elections in 2016, the official turnout rate was only 42 per cent. Once you take into account the nearly ten per cent of eligible voters who don’t even enrol to vote, the turnout rate is not much more than a third of adult New Zealanders.

Is anything likely to change this year? And how can voter participation rates be increased? These are some of the big debates going on around the local government elections at the moment.