Information for candidates

You must be a New Zealand citizen and be a parliamentary elector.

Other requirements are that:

• You are nominated by two electors in the area you are standing for.
• You or your spouse/partner must not have concerns or interests in contracts over $25,000 with the council.
• If you are subject to a Court Order under section 31 of the Protection of Personal and Property Rights Act 1988, you should take legal advice.
• If you are an employee of the council, you must resign before taking up your position as an elected member. The rules of some councils may require you to take leave for campaigning prior to the election.

You do not need to reside in the ward or city that you are standing for.

You do not need any formal qualifications. Elected members come from all walks of life and generally have a desire to serve their community.

Candidates in the Māori Ward do not need to be of Māori descent, but they do need to be on the parliamentary electoral roll.

There are a lot of different skills you will need to draw on, but the success of local government comes when all voices of a community can be heard and included. Most importantly you need to care about all members of your community and communicate their views, by representing them. You also need to be able to think about strategic issues and take both a short and long-term view of the impact your decisions will have. This is called governance. These two concepts are at the heart of local government.

Finally, you also know how to uphold the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi – The Treaty of Waitangi to facilitate participation by Māori in local authority decision-making processes.

The Candidates Handbook sets out the roles of the mayor and councillors.

Local Government New Zealand has a number of guides – the Candidate Guide and Good Governance Guide are useful if you are thinking about standing. You can also refer to the Guides in the resources section that outlines important information about how councils work and roles and responsibilities of elected members.

The term is for 3 years and 5 months until the next election in October 2028. Usually, the term is three years.

The mayor’s role is full-time.  The councillors role is considered part-time, approximately 3 days a week. Some weeks will be busier than others and some months of the year are busier than others.  There are no meetings booked in the school holidays and over the Christmas and January period.

$135,900 per annum

Additional expenses identified in the Elected Members’ Expenses and Resources Policy, may also be claimed.

 Elected Members’ Expenses and Resources Policy (154kb pdf)

You need two people to nominate you.

A nominator must be on the electoral roll for the area for which you are standing, e.g. if you are standing for election in a specific ward, you must be nominated by two electors from that ward who are also on the electoral roll for that ward.

As the person being nominated, you not required to be enrolled in the ward/city you are standing for but must be enrolled somewhere in New Zealand and meet the other criteria.

You are not able to nominate yourself.

Nomination forms will be available on the Council’s website. Your nominators must fill it in.  You must agree to being nominated and you also need to sign the form.

Nominations will be accepted from 3 February 2025. Nominations close at 12 noon on 3 March 2025.

Lodgement should not be left until the last day because if there are any problems with the details provided there might be insufficient time to resolve them and the nominee could miss out.

Yes, if you belong to a political party or other group you may want to identify with them.

If you do have a specific affiliation, the electoral officer may require a letter of consent from the party, organisation or group giving its consent for you to use the affiliation.

An affiliation is described in section 57(3) Local Electoral Act 2001 as “an endorsement by any organisation or group (whether incorporated or unincorporated).”

No affiliation that might cause offence, or is likely to confuse or mislead electors, will be accepted by the electoral officer.

Iwi and hapū affiliation

Candidates cannot use the affiliation field to list whānau, hapū or iwi details. It is acknowledged whakapapa is a birth right and can be included in the candidate profile statement and other forums and activities.

Independent candidates

Candidates who are not part of a political party or group sometimes identify their affiliation as ‘Independent’ or leave as blank (if left blank, nothing will show alongside the name of the candidate on the voting document).

Party affiliations

A candidate requiring a specific party affiliation should have authority to adopt the affiliation from the party, organisation or group concerned (i.e. the electoral officer may require a letter of consent from the party, organisation or group giving its consent for the candidate to use the affiliation). This is a safety measure to avoid any illegal adoption of party, group or organisation affiliations.

Multiple affiliations

Situations may arise where the same affiliation is given by two or more candidates, or a candidate provides multiple affiliations. If a candidate provides multiple affiliations, an electoral officer may require multiple endorsement or confirmation letters.

Character length for affiliations

Note that there are length limits to a candidate’s affiliation. The voting document and candidate booklet allows 38 characters before the affiliation truncates.

Candidates may provide the electoral officer with a candidate profile statement with their nomination. This is a statement of up to 150 words containing information about themselves and their policies and intentions if elected.

The profile may include a recent passport-sized photo. The candidate profile statement must be true and accurate. The electoral officer is not required to verify or investigate any information included in this statement and it will be included with the voting document sent to each elector.

If candidates choose not to supply a profile statement or photo, then a message will appear in the profile booklet that a statement/photo was not supplied by the candidate.

If a candidate profile statement is submitted in Māori and English, the information contained in each language must be substantially consistent with the information contained in the other language. Therefore, in the case where a candidate includes a mihi or greeting as part of a candidate profile statement provided in Māori, the mihi or greeting should be explained in the English version in a manner substantially consistent with the Māori version – still within the 150-word limit.

The candidate profile statement:

• must state whether or not the candidate’s principal place of residence, being the address in respect of which the candidate is registered as a parliamentary elector, is in the local government area for which the candidate seeks election (for example, either 'My principal place of residence is in the Te Awanui Māori Ward'; or 'My principal place of residence is not in the Te Awanui Māori Ward'); and
• if the candidate is seeking election to any other positions in elections to which the Local Electoral Act 2001 applies, they must specify each position and state that the candidate is seeking to be elected to these positions.

These statements are not counted as part of the 150-word limit.

It costs $200 including GST to lodge a nomination for each position standing. The funds must be deposited to the electoral officer by close of nominations (12 noon 24 May 2024).

Yes, it is important to find out what the rules are about things such as not going over budget on advertising and keeping track of all your expenses, as you will need to submit them after the completion of the campaign. There are also rules that apply to signage, such as where and when signs can be erected. There are limits to the amount of money candidates can spend on their election campaigns, which includes donations and joint campaigning.  Please refer to the Candidates Handbook for details.