Wellington City mayoral election, 2013

Wellington City mayoral election, 2013

12 October 2013[1]

Candidate Celia Wade-Brown John Morrison Jack Yan Party Independent Independent Independent Popular vote 27,171 24,691 9,996

Mayor before election Celia Wade-Brown Elected Mayor Celia Wade-Brown

The 2013 Wellington City mayoral election is part of the New Zealand local elections. On 12 October 2013, elections were held for the Mayor of Wellington plus other local government roles. Wade-Brown was re-elected.

Wellington is one of eight local bodies in New Zealand that uses the Single transferable vote system to elect its Mayor and Councillors.^[2] The 2013 local government election will be the first time that the Greater Wellington Regional Council will use STV in it elections, and the first time a regional council has used STV for elections in New Zealand.^[3]

Candidates

When nominations closed there were six candidates for the Wellington mayoralty.

• Rob Goulden, an Eastern Ward councillor until 2010, has put himself forward for the mayoralty and for the Eastern Ward. He had previously stood for the mayoralty in 2004. He said that he wanted to "tackle council debt". A news item commented that he "will enliven Wellington mayoral race" as "he was voted out in 2010, after years of turbulent relationships with his fellow councillors".^[4]

• John Morrison - City councillor for the Onslow-Western ward since 1998. The main centre-right candidate to challenge Wade-Brown.^[5]
• Karunanidhi Muthu, barrister and entrepreneur, entered the Wellington mayoral race just before nominations closed. A former chairman of the New Zealand National Party Rongotai electorate, and a past Parliamentary candidate for the United Future Party in the 2008 general election.
• Celia Wade-Brown - The incumbent since 2010, she has served as a Southern Ward councillor. She stood for the Green Party for Parliament in 1996 (under the Alliance banner), 1999 and 2002.
• Jack Yan - Stood for the mayoralty in 2010; in 2008 stood for the Alliance Party as a list candidate.^[6]
• Nicola Young - In 2005 stood in the Rongotai electorate for the National Party.^[7]

Dr Keith Johnson, an economist from Island Bay who ran for the Southern Ward in 2010, initially proposed to stand.^[8] He subsequently withdrew, saying that There was not much resonance in the concerns I had for debt control and against the rebalancing of rates.^[9]

Results

Wade-Brown was re-elected.^[10] The following table shows preliminary results for first preference votes,^[11] and final results for the last iteration.^[12]

References

Mayors of Wellington City
Mayors	elected by councillors George Hunter William Guyton Joseph Dransfield Charles Borlase William Sefton Moorhouse elected at large William Hutchison Joseph Dransfield George Allen William Hutchison George Fisher Arthur Winton Brown Samuel Brown John Duthie Charles Johnston Arthur Winton Brown Francis Bell Alfred Brandon Charles Luke George Fisher Francis Bell John Blair John Aitken Thomas William Hislop Alfred Newman Thomas Wilford David McLaren John Luke Robert Wright Charles Norwood George Troup Thomas Hislop Will Appleton Rob Macalister Frank Kitts Michael Fowler Ian Lawrence James Belich Fran Wilde Mark Blumsky Kerry Prendergast Celia Wade-Brown Justin Lester
Mayoral elections	Annual term 1875 1876† 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 Biennial term 1899 1901 1903† 1905 1907 1909 1910‡ 1911† 1912‡ 1913 1915 1917† 1919 1921 1923 1925 1927 1929 1931 1933† Triennial term 1935 1938 1941 1944 1947 1950 1953 1956 1959 1962 1965 1968 1971 1974 1977 1980 1983 1986 1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010 2013 2016
† Elected unopposed · ‡ By-election