Mayor Craig Jepson leaves the first meeting last night, saying members of the public had become too unruly.
Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf
Kaipara District councillors have voted to lodge a complaint about what outgoing mayor Craig Jepson says are irregularities in the election process with the Department of Internal Affairs.
The final vote was taken behind closed doors after a tense, testy debate with about 20 members of the public present on Friday.
Four police officers also attended along with three security guards.
Deputy mayor Jonathan Larsen said ratepayers have raised serious concerns about the election process, and it’s now up to the Department of Internal Affairs to decide.
However, councillor Eryn Wilson-Collins has called today’s hearing an abuse of power, saying individual candidates should lay their own complaints.
Thursday’s emergency meeting lasted only 25 minutes before it was adjourned.
Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf
Councillor Eryn Wilson-Collins, however, called today’s debate a travesty.
Election officer Dale Ofsoske said the final results in the cliffhanger mayoral election will be released on Friday night regardless.
Earlier, the public were excluded from the emergency meeting.
Jepson said that was to protect the privacy of staff named in the complaint.
Councillor Pera Paniora questioned the need for the exclusion.
Last night, Jepson adjourned the first emergency meeting after just 25 minutes when a man in a World War II aviator cap approached the council table and refused to sit down.
The 76-year-old said it was the first time he had been involved in a protest and he was standing up for democracy.
The meeting’s agenda called for an investigation by the Department of Internal Affairs, but Ofsoske said the DIA had no jurisdiction over elections.
Jepson responded there had been “a huge number of irregularities” in the election process, and a complaint by the council as a whole was warranted.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.