New faces for Waipa District Council
Waipā will be welcoming several new faces to represent the community following the release of preliminary results on Sunday 13 October 2019 with a strong female contingent elected.
Female councillors Liz Stolwyk and Hazel Barnes were safely re-elected with the highest numbers of votes received in Cambridge and Te Awamutu wards based on preliminary votes.
Women also led the charge for Cambridge community board rankings with exiting councillor Sue Milner receiving the second highest number of votes and with Alana Mackay, Elise Badger and Jo Davies-Colley all receiving strong voter support. Jim Goddin completed Cambridge representation for Cambridge community board. Mike Montgomerie was elected unopposed earlier in August as Maungatautari representative on Cambridge community board.
Angela Holt and Jill Taylor were elected unopposed to Te Awamutu community board along with Gary Derbyshire and Richard Hurrell. Kane Titchener will be the Kakepuku community representative for the Te Awamutu community board.
There was no change to the top seat with Jim Mylchreest returning unopposed as Mayor.
Current chair of Cambridge community board Mike Pettit will now represent Cambridge as a new incoming Councillor along with Philip Coles and Roger Gordon, who also come with community board experience. Three-term deputy mayor Grahame Webber was re-elected to Council for a seventh term.
Te Awamutu will welcome one new face with Lou Brown joining re-elected councillors Marcus Gower and Andrew Brown.
Clare St Pierre and Bruce Thomas were elected unopposed for Pirongia Ward Councillors. Susan O’Regan was elected unopposed for Kakepuku councillor and Elwyn Andree-Wiltens was also elected unopposed for Maungatautari ward.
Voter turnout in Waipā district was lower than 2016 with an overall return rate of 35.62 per cent across the district. Cambridge ward had 39.19 per cent of votes returned and Te Awamutu had 37.53 per cent returned.
Chief executive, Garry Dyet, noted the high number of councillors elected unopposed in outer wards likely resulted in a decrease in voter turnout.
In Pirongia, Maungatautari and Kakepuku wards, the mayor, councillors and Ngā Tai Ki Uta Māori representation for Waikato Regional Council were elected unopposed in August. Voting papers were only sent out for Waikato Regional Council general constituency representation and for Kakepuku community board representation. It is expected that this also impacted on overall lower turnout for Waipā.
Council staff worked hard to buck this trend and Dyet said it was pleasing to see an increase in returns from 7.7 per cent returns on 30 September to 35.62 at the close of elections.
“We knew there would be a drop due to the lack of mayoral race but overall I am still disappointed in the lower voter turnout. For a business this size and how important council is to everyday life, we would have hoped more people took the time to vote,” Dyet added.
Waipā electoral officer, Warwick Lampp said the lack of a mayoral race is a contributing factor for any election.
“For an election without a mayoralty race the return is often 10-15 per cent less, so the turnout this year for Waipā is a good one despite that.”
Preliminary results are available here with final results declared no later than Thursday 17 October 2019.