Gore Mayor Ben Bell has been returned for a second term.<\/p>\n
The incumbent won by\u00a0a healthy majority over his sole opponent, Gore businesswoman Nicky Davis.<\/p>\n
Bell captured 2917 of the votes compared to 1270 for Davis.<\/p>\n
In progress results released today three new councillors will be sitting around the council table.<\/p>\n
They are Torrone Smit, Mel Cupit and Donna Bruce.<\/p>\n
Council chief Executive Debbie Lascelles said there was a\u00a0late flurry of voting this morning, with 439 votes coming in from voting bins in Gore and Mataura, and at the council\u2019s drive-through.<\/p>\n
These votes are not included in the figures released today.<\/p>\n
\u201cLocal elections are all about people \u2013 those who put their hands up to stand, and those who take the time to vote. We\u2019re really grateful to everyone who got involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
She congratulated the successful candidates and thanked all nominees.<\/p>\n
\u201cStanding for Council takes commitment and courage, and we appreciate everyone who wanted to make a difference for the Gore District.\u201d<\/p>\n
Voter turnout for the Gore District was again strong, with 51.9% of the 9,049 enrolled voters having their say. This figure is expected to increase as special votes are counted. Voter turnout in 2022 was 52.66%.<\/p>\n
The new Council will be officially sworn in at a ceremony on Tuesday 28 October.<\/p>\n
Progress results are:<\/p>\n
Gore District Council<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Ben BELL – 2,917<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Nicky DAVIS – 1,270<\/p>\n
Informal 1<\/p>\n
Blank Voting Papers 72<\/p>\n
At large (3 vacancies):<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Torrone SMITH – 2,577<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Neville PHILLIPS – 2,420<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Joe STRINGE – 2,260<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Steven (Boko) DIXON – 1,638<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Gary MCINTYRE – 1,492<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Informal – 11<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Blank Voting Papers -118<\/p>\n
Gore ward (5 vacancies):<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Mel CUPIT (Independent) – 1,894<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Paul MCPHAIL (Independent) – 1,839<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Andy FRASER (Independent) – 1,716<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Robert (Caveman) MCKENZIE 1,532<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Donna BRUCE -1,175<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Jess HUDSON – 899<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Informal – 1<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Blank Voting Papers – 41<\/p>\n
Elected unopposed:<\/p>\n
\u00b7 John Gardyne and Stewart MacDonell (Rural ward)<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Nicky Coats (Mataura ward)<\/p>\n
Mataura Licensing Trust<\/p>\n
Ward 2 \u2013 Gore (3 vacancies):<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Jimmy ALLISON – 1,348<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Paul HENRY – 1,270<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Craig MARSHALL -1,095<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Kylie AITKEN – 1,016<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Jim GEDDES – 939<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Casey EASON – 830<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Informal 12<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Blank Voting Papers 123<\/p>\n
Elected unopposed:<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Horace McAuley (Ward 1 \u2013 Tapanui)<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Brendon (Moe) Murray (Ward 3 \u2013 Mataura)<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Vince Aynsley (Ward 4 \u2013 rural)<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Jeannine Cunningham (Ward 5 – Edendale)<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Marc Robertson (Ward 6 – Wyndham)<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Todd Lyders (Ward 7 – Tokanui)<\/p>\n
– Allied Media<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gore Mayor Ben Bell has been returned for a second term. The incumbent won by\u00a0a healthy majority over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-71161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71161","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=71161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}