1971 Lower Hutt mayoral election

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1971 Lower Hutt mayoral election
Lower Hutt COA.jpg
  1968 9 October 1971 1974  
Turnout18,440 (46.15%)
  John Kennedy-Good.jpg John Bryan Seddon.jpg Dave Hadley (crop).jpg
Candidate John Kennedy-Good John Seddon Dave Hadley
PartyCombined Team Labour Citizens'
Popular vote6,8546,3374,630
Percentage37.1634.3625.10

Mayor before election

John Kennedy-Good

Elected Mayor

John Kennedy-Good

The 1971 Lower Hutt mayoral election was part of the New Zealand local elections held that same year. The elections were held for the role of Mayor of Lower Hutt plus other local government positions including fifteen city councillors, also elected triennially. The polling was conducted using the standard first-past-the-post electoral method.

Contents

Background

1970 mid-term election

Mayor Percy Dowse died mid-term on 9 December 1970. Rather than hold a by-election the city council members decided to elect a councillor to finish the remainder of the term until the scheduled election 10 months later. [1] The council special meeting was held on 21 December. Councillor Chen Werry was nominated by Wally Bugden and seconded by Jessie Donald but he unexpectedly declined nomination. Cyril Phelps then nominated John Kennedy-Good which was seconded by Harold Meachen and finally the deputy mayor Dave Hadley was nominated by Ted Holdaway and seconded by Don Lee. A vote was held among the councillors by a show of hands. A visible split was seen with Citizens' Association councillors, splitting support between Hadley and Kennedy-Good, with Labour councillors (who were the minority on the council) all voting for Kennedy-Good who won nine votes to six. [2]

A list of each Councillors vote:

CouncillorMayoral Vote
Max BorraHadley
Wally BugdenKennedy-Good
Sam ChesneyKennedy-Good
Jessie DonaldKennedy-Good
Stan FrostHadley
Ted GibbsKennedy-Good
Dave HadleyHadley
Ted HoldawayHadley
John Kennedy-Good Kennedy-Good
Don LeeHadley
Harold MeachenKennedy-Good
Kitty MildenhallKennedy-Good
Cyril PhelpsKennedy-Good
Jim RossHadley
Chen Werry Kennedy-Good

October 1971 election

Even after councillors elected Kennedy-Good as Dowse's successor the Citizens' Association, who had a majority on the council, did not select Kennedy-Good for the 1971 election. Instead they chose the deputy mayor (and 1968 candidate) Dave Hadley instead. As a result Kennedy-Good formed his own "combined" electoral ticket, consisting of candidates who were previously Citizens' and Labour affiliated, with which to contest the election. Thinking that the Labour Party was not intending to put up a ticket of their own, four Labour councillors joined the combined team. Labour did eventually decide to run its own ticket and party policy dictated that members could not stand for election against official party candidates resulting them having their Labour membership suspended. [1]

In an evenly divided poll Kennedy-Good narrowly edged out former Labour councillor John Seddon to win the mayoralty. [3] The city council was split three ways, with Labour winning a plurality of seats. Labour and Citizens' councillors made a deal to elect their own members to committee chairs and voted Seddon as deputy mayor, sidelining the Combined Team. [1]

At the election both a father and son were elected to the council. Chen Werry was re-elected to the council on the combined ticket while his son, Dick Werry, won a seat on the Labour ticket. [4] It also saw the election of the city's first ever Indian councillor, Govind Bhula, a civil engineer originally from Bombay. [5]

Mayoral results

1971 Lower Hutt mayoral election [6]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Combined Team John Kennedy-Good 6,85437.16
Labour John Seddon 6,33734.36
Citizens' Dave Hadley4,63025.10-22.03
Independent Nick Ursin4842.62
Informal votes1350.73-0.64
Majority5172.80
Turnout 18,44046.15+3.14

Councillor results

1971 Lower Hutt City Council election [7]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour John Seddon 8,610 46.69
Labour Kitty Mildenhall 8,146 44.17 -4.53
Citizens' Don Lee 7,482 40.57 -13.04
Combined Team Chen Werry 7,22539.18-16.82
Citizens' Harold Turbott 7,133 38.68
Combined TeamSam Chesney7,01838.05-11.64
Labour Lawrie Woodley 6,995 37.93
Citizens' Andrew Ash 6,860 37.20
Combined TeamJessie Donald6,73736.53-11.23
Labour Govind Bhula 6,548 35.50
Labour Ernie Barry 6,494 35.21
Combined TeamStan Ramsom6,34434.40
Labour Dick Werry 6,258 33.93
Combined TeamTed Gibbs6,13033.24-13.57
Labour Les Duckworth 6,030 32.70
Citizens' Francis John Cameron5,97432.39
Labour David Carrad5,96632.35-10.08
Combined TeamCyril Phelps5,93432.18-15.13
Combined TeamGerald Bond5,87931.88
Citizens' Max Borra5,69330.87-14.93
Labour Jack Ward5,61230.43
Labour Bert Sutherland5,59730.35-11.46
Labour Laurie Sutton 5,59630.34
Combined TeamJim Ross5,49629.80-15.75
Labour Peter Gordon Palmer5,45829.59
Labour Laurence Phillip Lowe5,39129.23
Combined Team Glen Evans 5,38829.21
Citizens' Stan Frost5,35429.03-21.48
Labour Alick Shaw5,22128.31
Combined TeamDavid Kincaid4,80726.06
Combined TeamVince Fitzgibbon4,65425.23
Combined TeamEric Pearce4,56424.75
Citizens' David James Smith4,52624.54
Combined TeamKeith Thomas4,42724.00
Citizens' Parone Matiu4,40523.88
Labour Graeme Smith4,35423.61
Citizens' Sadie Williams4,25423.06
Combined Team Bill Lambert 4,19722.76
Combined TeamRay Partridge4,18322.68
Citizens' George Ian Hooper3,87220.99
Citizens' Raymond Joseph McLaughlin3,82320.73
Citizens' Joseph David Peters3,71720.15
Citizens' Robert McMurray3,66519.87
Citizens' Charles Edward Maxted3,62419.65
Citizens' Andrew George Gathergood3,54019.19-19.85
Independent Nick Ursin2,40013.01-3.68
Independent Anthony Francis Foot1,7809.65

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 McGill 1991, p. 189.
  2. "Dentist Mr Kennedy-Good Elected 14th Mayor of Lower Hutt on 9-6 Vote in Council". The Evening Post . 22 December 1970. p. 3.
  3. "Mr Kennedy-Good Just Retains Mayoralty in Face of Labour Bid". The Evening Post . 11 October 1971. p. 1.
  4. "Son Joins Father on L Hutt Council". The Evening Post . 11 October 1971. p. 2.
  5. "LH Elects Indian Councillor". The Evening Post . 11 October 1971. p. 2.
  6. "City of Lower Hutt - Declaration of Result of Election - Election of Mayor". The Evening Post . 16 October 1971. p. 44.
  7. "City of Lower Hutt - Declaration of Result of Election - Election of Councillors". The Evening Post . 16 October 1971. p. 44.

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