vying for a ninth term<\/a>, but his reign is likely over, with early results showing the city instead backed Peri Zee, an urban planner and transport adviser.<\/p>\nThe outgoing mayor has kept his comments short and sweet for now, but indicated he would have more to say soon.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile Zee, the only candidate who was not a sitting or former councillor, said she was excited to be at the helm for a “new chapter” for Upper Hutt.<\/p>\n
“Thank you to everyone who has put their trust in me,” she said.<\/p>\n
“The people have, it seems, voted for change, and I’m ready to be the mayor that the people have asked for.”<\/p>\n
Zee’s main priority was revitalising the city centre, which she said her community clearly wanted.<\/p>\n
![\"Upper](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/4K09ZOT_250930_Uppher_Hutt_Mayor_Race_2_jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nPeri Zee.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Samuel Rillstone\n<\/p>\n
Rates affordability would be one of her council’s biggest challenges, she said.<\/p>\n
Zee also acknowledged the efforts of her predecessor over more than two decades.<\/p>\n
“Wayne’s dedicated a significant amount of his life to Upper Hutt, and we absolutely need to acknowledge and celebrate that,” she said.<\/p>\n
“That does take a lot of sacrifice… it is a significant moment for him as well.”<\/p>\n
As votes are counted, councils release progress results, then preliminary results, before final results.<\/p>\n
Upper Hutt City Council said it was currently reporting progress results, with preliminary results delayed “due to the high volume of voting papers returned through orange bins across the country.”<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wayne Guppy has been the mayor of Upper Hutt for 24 years. (File photo) Photo: RNZ \/ Samuel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-74423","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-podcasts","13":"tag-public-radio","14":"tag-radio-new-zealand","15":"tag-rnz","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74423","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=74423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}