{"id":84489,"date":"2025-10-17T14:41:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T14:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/84489\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T14:41:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T14:41:10","slug":"tight-local-election-results-confirm-new-mayors-across-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/84489\/","title":{"rendered":"Tight local election results confirm new mayors across New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Had the results stayed as they were, Grant, who has been living as a trans woman since 1971, would have become the first transgender mayor since Georgina Beyer as well as the country\u2019s oldest mayor.<\/p>\n

Kaipara\u2019s mayoralty race was just as close, with preliminary results showing Deputy Mayor Jonathan Larsen beating Snow Tane by five votes.<\/p>\n

Third placed Jason Smith, who has been elected mayor twice before, has a vote count just 31 behind leader Larsen. <\/p>\n

However, controversy has clouded the results after outgoing Mayor Craig Jepson called an emergency meeting in a bid to lodge an election complaint.<\/p>\n

Jepson said he had serious concerns about irregularities in the election process and wanted councillors to join him in lodging a complaint and requesting an investigation.<\/p>\n

The meeting was adjourned after just 25 minutes after a 76-year-old member of the public in an RNZAF cap and blazer approached the council table and refused to move. <\/p>\n

Whang\u0101rei\u2018s race for mayor was slightly less tight than those already mentioned, with independent Ken Couper provisionally elected ahead of second-placed Vince Cocurullo by 307 votes.<\/p>\n

An extremely tight race in Hastings meant the mayoralty was decided by special votes.<\/p>\n

The final results declared Wendy Schollum as the new mayor, finishing 599 votes ahead of her closest rival, Marcus Buddo.<\/p>\n

\" Wendy Schollum has thanked Hastings for electing her as mayor.<\/p>\n

Buddo chose not to concede after the preliminary results were released and waited for the final results.<\/p>\n

Preliminary results gave Schollum a lead of 545 votes over Buddo, which she ultimately extended in the final results.<\/p>\n

Big upsets<\/p>\n

Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau will be out of office after she failed to win the election for the Te Whanganui-a-Tara M\u0101ori Ward, losing out to Labour\u2019s Matthew Rewiti.<\/p>\n

Whanau pulled out of the mayoral race after incoming Mayor Andrew Little decided to run. She said she would focus on returning as a councillor. <\/p>\n

\"IncomingIncoming Wellington Mayor Andrew Little and former Mayor Tory Whanau. Photos \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

This result brings an end to Whanau\u2019s turbulent three years as mayor of the capital city, including false sexual rumours<\/a> from other council members such as mayoral candidate Ray Chung.<\/p>\n

Chung finished third in the race for Wellington Mayor, but did secure election to the Wharangi\/Onslow-Western General Ward.<\/p>\n

\"RayRay Chung failed to be elected as Mayor of Wellington, but was voted to be a councillor in Wharangi\/Onslow-Western General Ward. Photo \/ Ethan Manera<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, a 24-year mayoral stint in Upper Hutt for Wayne Guppy comes to an end after his loss to challenger Peri Zee by more than 1500 votes. <\/p>\n

\"WayneWayne Guppy was first elected as Upper Hutt Mayor in 2001. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell <\/p>\n

Other incumbent mayors to lose their positions include Dunedin\u2019s Jules Radich, who finished fourth in voting; Sam Broughton in Selwyn, who received nearly 14,000 fewer votes than eventual winner Lydia Gliddon; while Kirsten Wise in Napier lost her role to Richard McGrath.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Had the results stayed as they were, Grant, who has been living as a trans woman since 1971,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2840,74,1558,21323,29861,13845,5903,7797,5904,24611,266,305,440,10934,17250,117,111,43,139,69,2847,13181,5909,22215,544,5654,7246,80],"class_list":["post-84489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-across","tag-after","tag-been","tag-candidates","tag-confirm","tag-eight","tag-election","tag-elections","tag-final","tag-flipped","tag-government","tag-have","tag-local","tag-mayor","tag-mayors","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-only","tag-released","tag-results","tag-separated","tag-some","tag-tight","tag-votes","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84489","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=84489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}