1944 Dunedin mayoral election

1944 Dunedin mayoral election

←  1941 27 May 1944 1947  →
Turnout	31,251 (70.16%)
Candidate Donald Cameron Gervan McMillan Party Citizens' Labour Popular vote 15,859 15,169 Percentage 50.74 48.53
Mayor before election Andrew Allen Elected mayor Donald Cameron

The 1944 Dunedin mayoral election was part of the New Zealand local elections held that same year. In 1944, elections were held for the Mayor of Dunedin plus other local government positions including twelve city councillors. The polling was conducted using the standard first-past-the-post electoral method.

Background

Andrew Henson Allen, the incumbent Mayor, declined to run for a third term. Gervan McMillan the retired Labour MP for Dunedin West contested the mayoralty for a second time, but was narrowly defeated by councillor Donald Cameron. McMillan did, however, win a seat on the council.

Labour gained ground on the city council, winning six of the twelve seats, with three Citizens' councillors seeking re-election defeated. ^[1] A recount was called for the city council poll by a Labour candidate Mark Silverstone. It changed the result slightly with Michael Connelly displacing Wally Hudson as the lowest polling successful candidate. It did not alter the party strength on the council as both had run as Labour candidates. The council viewed judged the recount to be unjustified and charged Silverstone to cover the cost of the recounting efforts. ^[2]

Mayoral results

1944 Dunedin mayoral election ^[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Citizens'	Donald Cameron	15,859	50.74
	Labour	Gervan McMillan	15,169	48.53	+1.65
Informal votes			223	0.71	−0.05
Majority			690	2.20
Turnout			31,251	70.16

Council results

1944 Dunedin local election ^[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Robert Walls	16,918	54.13	+0.16
	Labour	Phil Connolly	16,068	51.41	−6.10
	Labour	Gervan McMillan	15,575	49.83
	Citizens'	John McRae	15,406	49.29	−2.50
	Labour	Jim Munro	15,400	49.27	−0.57
	Labour	Meynell Blain	15,377	49.20
	Citizens'	Leonard James Tobin Ireland	14,966	47.88	−0.36
	Citizens'	Robert Forsyth-Barr	14,957	47.86
	Citizens'	Len Wright	14,893	47.65	−1.37
	Citizens'	David Charles Jolly	14,838	47.48	−0.57
	Citizens'	William Taverner	14,748	47.19	−3.26
	Labour	Michael Connelly	14,722	47.11	+0.88
	Labour	Wally Hudson [nb 1]	14,720	47.10	+1.23
	Citizens'	William Stewart Armitage	14,764	47.24
	Independent	Charlie Hayward	14,672	46.94
	Citizens'	Edmund J. Smith	14,650	46.87	−1.33
	Citizens'	John Wilson	14,503	46.40	−4.03
	Labour	Hubert Brown	14,036	44.91
	Labour	William Robert Clarke	13,937	44.59
	Citizens'	William Wallace Callender	13,873	44.39
	Labour	William Benedict Richards	13,656	43.69
	Citizens'	Matthew Cochrane Henderson	13,458	43.06	−6.03
	Labour	Mark Silverstone	13,398	42.87	+4.86
	Labour	Wilfred Claude McDonnell	12,776	40.88
	Independent	Robert Bell Middlemiss	3,640	11.64

Table footnotes:

1. Hudson was appointed to the council in 1945 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Jim Munro. ^[5]

References

1. "Labour Gains in Dunedin". The Press . Vol. LXXX, no. 24269. 29 May 1944. p. 7. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
2. "City Council Election Recount Unwarranted". Otago Daily Times . No. 25572. 27 June 1944. p. 4. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
3. "The City Mayoralty". Otago Daily Times . No. 25547. 29 May 1944. p. 6. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
4. "Election Notices". Otago Daily Times . No. 25569. 23 June 1944. p. 6. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
5. "City Council Vacancy". Otago Daily Times . No. 25874. 19 June 1945. p. 4. Retrieved 23 May 2019.