Jepson called an unprecedented emergency council meeting<\/a> to approve a complaint to the Department of Internal Affairs alleging concerns about the election process in Kaipara. <\/p>\n![\"Dr]()
Dr Jason Smith, a two-term former Kaipara Mayor (2018-2022), trailed election winner Jonathan Larsen by 51 votes. Photo \/ NZME ![\"Only]()
Only 21 votes separated iwi leader and businessman Snow Tane from Jonathan Larsen in the mayoral race. Photo \/ RNZ, Peter de Graaf<\/p>\n
Smith said he had messaged Larsen to congratulate him on his success and wished him well for uniting the people of Kaipara. <\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t indicate if he was considering applying for a recount, applications for which must be made within three working days \u2013 by midnight October 22. <\/p>\n
Tane said he was feeling \u201ccomfortable\u201d and considering his next option, potentially a recount. <\/p>\n
While his mayoral bid might be unsuccessful so far, he still holds the top spot as a newly-elected, first-term councillor for the hotly contested Wairoa Ward. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt would have been a very interesting space if I was the mayor but I\u2019m in council and I think I\u2019ll do the best for the West,\u201d Tane said. <\/p>\n
Tane, a first-time councillor, topped Wairoa General Ward\u2019s voting with 2443 votes. The next highest polling candidate was newcomer Joesephine Nathan on 1444. Councillor incumbent Gordon Lambeth is the ward\u2019s third-ranked politician with 1345 votes. The ward\u2019s three councillors are all from Dargaville.<\/p>\n
Jepson, after standing down as mayor, has been elected as a Kaiwaka-Mangawhai General Ward councillor with the electoral area\u2019s second-highest return of 1704 votes. Incumbent Rachael Williams led the voting with 1985 votes and newcomer Luke Canton\u2019s 1669 votes secured the third of the ward\u2019s three seats. The three councillors are all from Mangawhai.<\/p>\n
In \u014ctamatea General Ward, newcomers Mike Schimanski with 820 votes and Denise Rogers with 742 have been elected to its two seats. Kaipara 2022-2025 councillor Mark Vincent, on 740 votes, missed out on a return to the ward by two votes.<\/p>\n
According to election rules, an inaugural council meeting must be notified seven days in advance, but only after the recount application period has ended, or, if a recount proceeds, once that process is complete. <\/p>\n
Possible dates for a swearing-in ceremony and inaugural council meeting are Wednesdays, November 5 and November 12.<\/p>\n
Sarah Curtis is a news reporter<\/a> for the Northern Advocate, focusing on a wide range of issues. She has nearly 20 years\u2019 experience in journalism, most of which she spent court reporting in Gisborne and on the East Coast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cMy first action will be to get together with all of the newly elected council to understand their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,33092,11746,2082,58141,16411,23157,42920,64345,10934,21942,111,43,139,69,17398,7798,64346,13992,64347,7246,18457,6202],"class_list":["post-84270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-deputy","tag-edge","tag-for","tag-incumbent","tag-jonathan","tag-kaipara","tag-kaiparas","tag-larsen","tag-mayor","tag-mayoralty","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-possible","tag-race","tag-razors","tag-recount","tag-threeway","tag-votes","tag-winning","tag-wins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84270","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=84270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}