Kerry squeaks home – for now
October 9th, 2010 at 6:26 pm by David FarrarKerry Prendergast has a margin of just 40 votes on the ordinary votes. If this holds up against specials, then it will be congrats to Kerry on winning a 4th term – a hard thing to do in an STV environment where all the votes of those against you accumulate.
Either way it is congrats to Celia Wade-Brown for a strong campaign. Celia did not stand for Council again, but if she does lose and stays active may be a front runner for 2013.
There are 900 special votes, so Celia may still win. She needs to be ranked higher than Kerry in 52.3% of the specials.
(Note re-written from the original which was based on a media story declaring Kerry elected)
UPDATE: We now have fuller results:
- In Northern Ward Justin Lester has beaten Hayley Wain. Lester topped the ward followed by best and then Ritchie – groan but at least she was last elected.
- In Onslow-Western the three sitting Councillors all got re-elected. in order Foster, Morrison and Coughlan. Ruben lost badly which is good.
- Lambton Ward saw the three incumbents re-elected also – in order McKinnon, Pannett and Cook. Marcus Ganley came close to winning the last spot off Cook.
- In Eastern Ward, Rob Goulden lost his seat to Swampy Marsh. Most of his fellow Councillors will be happy with that. In fact Goulden came 5th behind Allan Probert also. Gill topped the ward ahead of Ahipene-Mercer which surprises me a bit.
- In Southern Ward they re-elected Paul Eagle and sadly Bryan Pepperell.
For the Wellington Regional Council, the results are:
- Wellington – Fran Wilde, Chris Laidlaw, Judith Aitken, Paul Bruce and Daran Ponter
- Lower Hutt – Peter Glensor, Sandra Greig, Prudence Lamason
- Porirua-Tawa – Jenny Brash, Barbara Donaldson
- Kapiti Coast – not known
- Upper Hutt – Paul Swain
- Wairarapa – Gary McPhee
October 9th, 2010 at 6:28 pm
You assume the 900 or so special votes won’t alter it?
Vote:October 9th, 2010 at 6:30 pm
Hells bells, special votes yet, but hell they’re cutting it fine. Congrats to both anyway, amazing.
Vote:October 9th, 2010 at 6:34 pm
I saw the Wgtn candidates on Backbenches .. The “Chinese” (am I allowed to say that) guy was my standout. Maybe if he can keep his name out there and try again next time
Vote:October 9th, 2010 at 6:38 pm
Jack Yan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Yan
Stood for parliament twice alresdy
Vote:October 9th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
Too close to call.
Vote:October 9th, 2010 at 6:45 pm
Probably not strictly correct to say Kerry has been reelected. She is certainly ahead. And if Celia Wade-Brown is ranked higher in 52.3% of the specials, Kerry Prendegast won’t be reelected.
Vote:October 9th, 2010 at 6:50 pm
I hope Celia beats Kerry following the counting of specials. Kerry was bland and boring at meetings. She stands for nothing.
Very surprised Celia didn’t run for the Green Party’s Wellington Central nomination for the 2011 general election. I wonder if she’ll run for and get a high Green Party list spot for 2011?
Vote:October 9th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
Oh sure, Kerry may be in the lead with 40 votes, but based on the turnout, I think only 60 people voted.
In this debate between STV and FPP, I’m personally a fan of the WLV voting system. That’s where you get to vote politicians out, rather than vote new ones in. Thus the name: Weakest Link Voting.
Vote:October 9th, 2010 at 7:10 pm
Red Sam, get out of your communist net-hole & come pick me up, lets go for a Mexican [food, not trade, not that there's much in the way of good cheap Mexican trade in this Gawd foresaken town]. Go-Go Celia.
Vote:October 9th, 2010 at 7:20 pm
A watermelon greenie, a Luddite, as Wellington major? It would be tragic and only possible because of Prendergast lifeless, boring, and anodyne campaign.
Vote:October 9th, 2010 at 7:33 pm
“She stands for nothing.”
A branding expert on Friday Morning Report said ten years before changing branding is well past use-by-date in the branding world and I immediately thought about Absolutely Fabulous Wellington although he didn’t say that.
Vote:October 9th, 2010 at 7:33 pm
Have to say that would be worse than Brown in Auck.
Vote:October 9th, 2010 at 7:37 pm
Has anybody checked the hanging chads?
Presumably in an STV election there are various ways to vote “wrong” … are any of those votes counted? (e.g. somebody writes 1,2,3,5 … yeah, not smart but nor is texting the wrong girlfriend, but somehow people manage it. Not me, honest).
Vote:October 9th, 2010 at 7:56 pm
Paul Eagle is a new councillor. He has not been re-elected.
Vote:October 9th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
thanks Inky .. just read the Yan bio and he doesn’t have what it takes, not bright enough
Vote:October 9th, 2010 at 8:05 pm
If you voted like that your first three preferences would count, but number 5 and later wouldn’t.
Vote:October 9th, 2010 at 8:11 pm
“If you voted like that your first three preferences would count”
Instead of voting like that maybe democracy should work like the Mayor had to get around you once every say six years and reconfirm you were happy with their performance and had your support. If so your vote counted for six years and if not your no vote counted for six years together with your nominated alternative.
The catch being, the candidate had to visit personally every single voter and listen to everything they had to say for as long as it took.
Do you think this would work?
Vote:October 9th, 2010 at 8:18 pm
Heh, as expected Thomas Morgan, who makes it a specialty in coming last, not only came last in his ward, he got the fewest votes of all candidates in all wards – 96 people voted for him.
Vote:October 9th, 2010 at 8:26 pm
I’m disappointed people voted in Morrison in the Onslow-Western ward. His campaign seemed to be concerned only with sports facilities.
Vote:October 9th, 2010 at 9:03 pm
If national elections are anything to go by, DPF, the Greens historically do very well on specials. With 40 votes the difference, I reckon Celia still has a very good chance.
Vote:October 9th, 2010 at 9:14 pm
Thanks for that update toad. Most appreciated.
Vote:October 9th, 2010 at 9:26 pm
Great! I can look forward to a daily $10 tax to drive my car to work then can I? (Or is that ‘each way’?)
Pay for your own bloody bus fares!
Vote:October 9th, 2010 at 10:04 pm
Wade-Brown tweets: “Maybe this time 2moro we can begin 2 plan innovative architecture re-using “waste” & planning for rainwater-collecting green roofs in Welly!”
She hasn’t noticed that Wellington isn’t even slightly short of water. Why implement expensive and inefficient dual plumbing systems when we can get inexpensive clean water out of our taps?
Typical Green… Batshit crazy.
Vote:October 9th, 2010 at 10:48 pm
I reckon Pepperell would have done better if he looked less like Rob Muldoon
Vote:http://www.elections2010.co.nz/assets/Uploads/_resampled/SetWidth200-Bryan-large.jpg
October 9th, 2010 at 11:04 pm
I understand the numbers in ’07 to have been that Kerry got 34.9% of first preference votes overall, but only 25.8% of first preference votes on the specials. Far from over.
[DPF: That certainly suggests Celia will win. Only thing to be careful about is that what matters is not so much 1st preferences but whether Kerry is ranked higher than Celia]
Vote:October 9th, 2010 at 11:16 pm
They voted for Helene Ritchie? Again?! Excuse me, I’m going to sit in a corner and repeatedly bang my head against the wall.
Vote:October 10th, 2010 at 12:44 am
How many of the special votes in Wgtn City are property ones?
Also, congratulations to Nick Leggett
Vote:October 10th, 2010 at 1:07 am
I would assume that most ratepayer electors are enrolled, and would thus get voting papers in the mail.
Vote:October 10th, 2010 at 4:53 am
Good question Nicola. The Property Council were planning a proactive campaign to get nominated people outside of Wellington to vote on behalf of building owners who reside in Wellington. One of their Wellington committee members told me that there were 300 or so votes expected from this campaign. What I don’t know is whether these votes actually came in and whether they have already been counted. If they have not yet been counted this might just save Kerry. Otherwise i don’t think 40 is enough of a buffer. The Green and Labour machines were very effective this year and have been actively encouraging specials.
Vote:October 10th, 2010 at 7:23 am
Oh god, compulsory rate-payer funded birkenstocks, meaningful conversation groups and light rail that no-one will use.
Vote:October 10th, 2010 at 1:53 pm
Does anyone know the DHB results?
Vote:October 10th, 2010 at 2:00 pm
My overall impression of the councillors when I worked there was they fell into two groups, some were very hardworking and came to contribute every day while the other group consisted of councillors who would have done everyone a favour if they stayed at home.
I found Goulden very frustrating. I don’t know why the Eastern Ward returned him so often and also why he even bothered. He never contributed anything useful to Council meetings because he was so hostile to everyone else around the table (and officers). Wain was useless too – to this day I wonder if she was there for some kind of decorative effect. Ritchie is overdue for retirement, seemed very bitter and although not as bad as Goulden rarely had anything to say that was worth noting. Gill= nice lady but don’t know why people vote for her.
It was amusing to watch how the senior management ‘managed’ the councillors, especially the dimmer ones. Keeping some in the dark was regarded as best policy.
Wade-Brown impressed me for her commitment. As she only stood for the Mayoralty, the Council will miss some of her energy if she loses this bid. But Pannett might be glad not to have a green rival at the table.
One advantage of electing a new mayor could have been a bit of a well- deserved shock to the management. They are a very cosy bunch, and, in my view, the main reason for the poor organisational culture which may be driving a fairly high staff turnover. A new Mayor could set off a chain reaction of a new CEO, followed soon after by the departure of Gary Poole’s favourites – it might transform WCC.
Vote:October 10th, 2010 at 8:17 pm
Are the people of Wellington stupid?
It is bad enough that Lying Brown is going to destroy Auckland but I simply cannot see why Wellingtonians would elect a mayor who will send the city back to the dark old days of the 80′s when it was the laughing stock of the nation.
Wellington is a vibrant go ahead city, it simply cannot afford to suffer under communist luddite rule for three years.
Vote: