{"id":568431,"date":"2026-08-14T03:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T03:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/568431\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T03:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T03:26:09","slug":"far-north-councillor-davina-smolders-could-trigger-100000-byelection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/568431\/","title":{"rendered":"Far North councillor Davina Smolders could trigger $100,000 byelection"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 1News-Verian election poll on Wednesday<\/a> showed the party on 9%, suggesting Act could win about 11 seats. However, actual election results will determine how many list candidates enter Parliament.<\/p>\n

The district council\u2019s acting general manager community and engagement, Ken Lewis, said a byelection in the Bay of Islands-Whangaroa Ward during the 2026-27 financial year would cost about $100,000.<\/p>\n

Smolders, who announced in late July that she was standing as an Act<\/a> list candidate, did not respond to further questions from Local Democracy Reporting about her parliamentary ambitions.<\/p>\n

Questions included why she had not informed the mayor of her intentions, whether discussions had been held about the implications of a possible resignation, and when she would resign if she secured a place in the top 11 on Act\u2019s party list.<\/p>\n

Smolders is serving her first council term after being elected in 2025 in the hotly contested Bay of Islands-Whangaroa Ward under an Act Local banner.<\/p>\n

The ward\u2019s three seats went to Ann Court (3677 votes), Smolders (2299) and Kelly Stratford (2260). Tyler Bamber narrowly missed out with 2065 votes.<\/p>\n

When is a byelection triggered?<\/p>\n

Councils are required to hold a byelection if a councillor resigns more than 12 months before the next local election, due in October 2028.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis must normally be done within 103 days of the electoral officer receiving notice of the extraordinary vacancy,\u201d Lewis said.<\/p>\n

If a vacancy occurred between September 14 and November 20, 2026, a byelection could not be held before March 3, 2027.<\/p>\n

If a councillor resigns within 12 months of the next local election, the law does not allow a byelection.<\/p>\n

Instead, the council must appoint a qualified replacement or leave the seat vacant until the election.<\/p>\n

Councillors who have headed to Parliament<\/p>\n

A move to Parliament by Smolders would echo that of former Bay of Islands-Whangaroa councillor Willow-Jean Prime.<\/p>\n

Prime was first elected to the FNDC in 2013 and served two terms.<\/p>\n

While a councillor, she unsuccessfully contested the Northland electorate for Labour in 2014.<\/p>\n

Prime was re-elected to the council in 2016 before entering Parliament as a Labour list MP in the 2017 election.<\/p>\n

She resigned from the council about a year into her second term, triggering a 2018 byelection, which was won by Stratford.<\/p>\n

Standing as a candidate in a general election does not affect a councillor\u2019s position on a local authority, and a candidate can continue serving on the council.<\/p>\n

Te Hiku Ward councillor Felicity Foy, who has served on the FNDC since 2019, unsuccessfully contested the Northland electorate as National\u2019s candidate at the 2023 general election before being re-elected to council in 2025.<\/p>\n

Lewis said a councillor elected to Parliament could choose to remain on the council.<\/p>\n

A person doing this would need to decide whether they had capacity to perform both roles, he said.<\/p>\n

Blenheim councillor Jamie Arbuckle entered Parliament as a New Zealand First list MP in October 2023 while serving on the Marlborough District Council.<\/p>\n

Arbuckle retained both roles for about a year, arguing an earlier resignation could have saddled ratepayers with a byelection costing more than $130,000.<\/p>\n

The dual role later attracted political scrutiny, with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon raising concerns about MPs holding another elected office amid debate over public perception and so-called \u201cdouble-dipping\u201d.<\/p>\n

While former Far North Mayor John Carter had lengthy careers in Parliament and local government, the two did not coincide.<\/p>\n

Carter served as Northland\u2019s MP until 2011 and was elected Far North Mayor in 2013, meaning he never held both offices at the same time.<\/p>\n

The general election will be held on November 7.<\/p>\n

\u25a0 LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 1News-Verian election poll on Wednesday showed the party on 9%, suggesting Act could win about 11 seats.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[23562,7244,2046,124,38290,67344,1872,528,42,279788,43,529,76331,84888,25718,17363,279787,40,38,41,39,52302],"class_list":["post-568431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-23562","tag-byelection","tag-career","tag-could","tag-councillor","tag-davina","tag-face","tag-far","tag-headlines","tag-kerikeribased","tag-news","tag-north","tag-parliamentary","tag-pursue","tag-ratepayers","tag-resigns","tag-smolders","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-trigger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}