By-election gathers momentum
TWO “Meet the Candidates” meetings have already been arranged by community organisations as the Manawatu District Council’s Mayoral By-election begins to gather momentum.
Four candidates - current MDC councillors Margaret Kouvelis, Barbara Cameron and Steve Gibson and Palmerston North business owner Russell Johnson – are vying for the mayoralty following the resignation of Ian McKelvie, now the MP for Rangitikei.
The first meeting, organised by the Rongotea Community Committee, is at 7.30pm on Monday, February 13, in the Te Kawau Recreation Centre, with the other, arranged by the Makino Rotary Club, in the Rangitikei Club, Feilding, at 7.30pm on Tuesday, February 14.
Deputy Electoral Officer Janine Hawthorn said the meetings were completely run by the organisations involved, though council would promote time and venue details to the public. Further candidates meetings in the district are also likely.
Voting documents are to be delivered, and special votes open, on Monday, February 13, with postal voting to close at noon on Election Day, Wednesday, March 7.
Mrs Hawthorn said council was implementing a “first” in the by-election by having the candidates’ names in the voting papers listed in random order, rather than alphabetically.
This followed a judicial review of the 2010 Local Government Elections where the panel believed that candidates with surnames that started after the letter “M” were more disadvantaged than those from “A” to “M”.
“It means that voting papers will be different,” said Mrs Hawthorn, “and voters need to be more wary of who they are voting for and conscious of where their tick is going.”
Mrs Hawthorn is hoping for a good response from district voters, but aware that by-elections were normally not as well patronized as a fully blown local government election.
“It would be heartening if we do get a good turnout and beat that usual 30 percent threshold,” she said.
Further information is available on council’s website here and inquiries to Mrs Hawthorn on (06) 323-0000.