Christchurch mayoral election, 2010

Christchurch mayoral election, 2010

9 October 2010[1]

Candidate Bob Parker Jim Anderton Party Independent Independent Popular vote 70,193 53,604 Percentage 53.42 40.79

Mayor before election Bob Parker Elected Mayor Bob Parker

The Christchurch mayoral election, 2010 is part of the New Zealand local elections, 2010. On 9 October 2010, elections were held for the Mayor of Christchurch plus other local government roles. Incumbent Bob Parker was re-elected.

Local government elections

On 9 October 2010, elections were held for the position of mayor of Christchurch, for 13 councillors representing the 7 wards of the Christchurch City Council, for the city's community board representatives, and for the Canterbury District Health Board. This time, there were no elections for the Canterbury Regional Council, as the government, following the release of the "Creech Report", chose to appoint a panel of commissioners to replace the elected councillors. The commissioners are headed by Margaret Bazley.^[2]

Local authority elections are held throughout New Zealand triennially and are conducted by postal vote.^[3]

Timeline

Nominations opened for candidates to formally register with the returning officer on 23 July 2010.^[3] Nominations closed on 20 August 2010. Voting documents were delivered on 17 September 2010.

Under section 10 of the Local Electoral Act 2001,^[4] a "general election of members of every local authority or community board must be held on the second Saturday in October in every third year" from the date the Act came into effect in 2001, meaning 9 October 2010. On election day, voting closed at 12 noon.

Candidates

Declared candidates

Candidates who have publicly declared that they would contest the mayoralty are so far the incumbent Bob Parker (who announced that he would want a second term back in 2009), and Peter Wakeman.^[5]

Jim Anderton announced on 6 May that he would contest the mayoralty. In becoming successful, Jim Anderton had previously stated he would not give up his Wigram electorate seat as to avoid a by-election, citing costs associated with a by-election.^[6] However, he has now stated that he would give up his parliamentary seat if elected in order to focus on Christchurch in the aftermath of the 2010 Canterbury earthquake.^[7]

Nathan Ryan announced that he would stand as an independent candidate for the Christchurch mayoralty, as well as standing for the city council and the community board in the Hagley-Ferrymead ward. Ryan had previously contested the 2007 election.^[8]

Declared not to stand

Initially, Liz Gordon was a candidate for the Christchurch Mayoralty. Following Anderton's candidacy announcement, she confirmed that she would not be pulling out of the race.^[9] However, on 19 July she reversed her previous decision stating: "If I stayed in the race, I think it (the vote) could have ended up going to Bob Parker and that's the last thing I want". This is based on her belief that if she remained in the candidacy for mayor the left vote would be split, mostly due to her claim of polling at around 10% for the majority of the campaign.^[10] In comparison, the UMR research published in June 2010 had her polling at 4%.^[11]

Kerry Burke, former MP and speaker of the house, and lately councillor for ECan, was discussed as a likely contender.^[12] On 3 June 2010, he announced that he would back Anderton's desire for the mayoralty, and that he himself would seek election for Christchurch City Council in the Spreydon-Heathcote ward.^[13]

Before the end of 2009, Jo Kane was considering standing for the Christchurch mayoralty. She is a former deputy mayor for Waimakariri District Council, and lately councillor for ECan.^[14] Kane announced in June 2010 that she will contest the Waimakariri mayoralty.^[15] Other Waimakariri candidates include long-serving Waimakariri councillor David Ayers (also a former Deputy Mayor), current Mayor Ron Keating and Peter Wakeman, who is also contesting the Christchurch mayoralty.

Opinion polls

The 4 September 2010 Canterbury earthquake can be seen as having a major impact on this mayoral election. Anderton led the two polls prior to it but has fallen behind since then. 88% of people believed that Parker had handled the response very well.^[16]

Results

Incumbent Bob Parker was re-elected with an increased majority.^[20]

Voting statistics

Participation in local elections has been falling for years. In the 2010 local election, 51.68% of registered voters cast their vote, which is significantly higher than the low of 2004, and the increased interest was caused by the recent earthquake. The following table shows the voting statistics since the 1989 local elections:^[21][22]

Table footnotes:

See also

• Auckland mayoral election, 2010
• Dunedin mayoral election, 2010
• Wellington City mayoral election, 2010

References

Mayors of Christchurch
Chairman	John Hall John Ollivier Isaac Luck Edward Bishop William Wilson
Mayors	elected by councillors William Wilson John Anderson Andrew Duncan James Jameson Henry Sawtell Edward Bishop Michael Hart Fred Hobbs elected at large Fred Hobbs James Gapes Henry Thomson Charles Thomas Ick James Gapes (2nd) George Ruddenklau Charles Hulbert Aaron Ayers Charles Louisson Samuel Manning Charles Gray William Prudhoe Eden George Thomas Gapes Walter Cooper Harry Joseph Beswick Walter Cooper (2nd) Charles Louisson (2nd) William Reece Arthur Rhodes Henry Wigram Charles Mathew Gray (2nd) John Hall George Payling Charles Allison Thomas Taylor John Joseph Dougall1 Henry Holland Henry Thacker James Arthur Flesher Rev John Archer Dan Sullivan John Beanland Robert Macfarlane Ernest Andrews Robert Macfarlane (2nd) George Manning Ron Guthrey Neville Pickering Hamish Hay Vicki Buck Garry Moore Bob Parker Lianne Dalziel
Mayoral elections	annual term 1875† 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882† 1883 1884† 1885† 1886 1887† 1888† 1889† 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897† 1898† 1899† 1901† 1902† 1903† 1904† 1905 1906† 1907† 1908 1909 1910† 1911 1912 1913 1914 biennial term 1915 1917 1919 1921 1923 1925 1927 1929 1931 1933 triennial term 1935 1936‡ 1938 1941 1944 1947 1950 1953 1956 1958‡ 1959 1962 1965 1968 1971 1974 1977 1980 1983 1986 1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010 2013 2016
† Elected unopposed · ‡ By-election · 1 appointed following death of incumbent