Christchurch mayoral election, 2016

Last updated March 20, 2019

The 2016 Christchurch mayoral election was part of the New Zealand local elections held on 8 October. The incumbent mayor, former Labour MP and government Minister Lianne Dalziel, who was first elected in the 2013 mayoral election was reelected, winning a commanding 83.9% of formal votes cast in the poll.^[1] However New Zealand's local government elections in 2016 were characterized by a nationwide low participation rate which saw only 41.8% of enrolled voters cast a ballot in the election. Christchurch's turnout rate was particularly low with only 38.3% of enrolled voters actually voting, down from 52.2% in 2010.^[2]

The New Zealand Labour Party, or simply Labour, is a centre-left political party in New Zealand. The party's platform programme describes its founding principle as democratic socialism, while observers describe Labour as social-democratic and pragmatic in practice. It is a participant of the international Progressive Alliance.

Lianne Audrey Dalziel is the Mayor of Christchurch. Prior to this position, she was a member of the New Zealand Parliament for 23 years, serving as Minister of Immigration, Commerce, Minister of Food Safety and Associate Minister of Justice in the Fifth Labour Government. She resigned from Cabinet on 20 February 2004 after apparently lying about a leak of documents to the media, but was reinstated as a Minister following Labour's return to office after the 2005 election. She resigned from Parliament effective 11 October 2013 to contest the Christchurch mayoral election. The incumbent, Bob Parker, decided not to stand again, and she was widely regarded as the top favourite and won with a wide margin to become the 46th Mayor of Christchurch.

Candidates

There were three candidates:^[3]^[4]

Lianne Dalziel (Best for Christchurch), incumbent, who formally declared her intention to run for a second term on 25 April.^[5]
Tubby Hansen (Economic Euthenics), perennial candidate
John Minto (Keep Our Assets), veteran political activist, who announced his candidacy on 12 July^[6]

A perennial candidate is a political candidate who frequently runs for an elected office but seldom wins. The term is not generally extended to incumbent politicians who successfully defend their seats repeatedly.

John Minto is a New Zealand-based political activist known for his involvement in various left-wing groups and causes, most notably Halt All Racist Tours. A 2005 documentary on New Zealand's Top 100 History Makers listed him as number 89. Today he is involved with the protest group Global Peace and Justice Auckland and the Unite Union. He also wrote a weekly column for The Press and was formerly editor of the Workers' Charter newspaper.

The left-leaning ticket, The People's Choice, represented on the outgoing city council by six councillors, declared that they would not stand a candidate in opposition to Dalziel – and councillor Paul Lonsdale, who came second in the 2013 mayoral campaign, acknowledged that Dalziel had done well in her first term and that he would not challenge her.^[7]

Debates

The Press hosted a debate between Dalziel and Minto at the Cardboard Cathedral on 20 September,^[8] moderated by its editor, Joanna Norris.^[9] The following day, Guyon Espiner interviewed Dalziel and Minto on RNZ National's Morning Report.^[10]

The Press is a daily newspaper published in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is owned by Fairfax Media. First published in 1861, the paper format for the weekday editions changed from broadsheet to compact in 2018, with only the Saturday edition retaining the larger format.

The Cardboard Cathedral, formally called the Transitional Cathedral, in Christchurch, New Zealand, is the transitional pro-cathedral of the Anglican Diocese of Christchurch, replacing ChristChurch Cathedral, which was significantly damaged in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake. The Cardboard Cathedral was designed by the Japanese architect Shigeru Ban and opened in August 2013. It is located on the site of St John the Baptist Church on the corner of Hereford and Madras Streets in Latimer Square, several blocks from the permanent location of ChristChurch Cathedral.

Joanna Norris is a New Zealand-based journalist and current head of ChristchurchNZ, an organisation responsible for promotion and economic development. Prior to that, she was editor of The Press, a daily broadsheet published in Christchurch.

Generation Zero hosted a debate at the University of Canterbury's Ilam campus on 22 September 2016.^[11]^[12]

Generation Zero is a youth-led organisation in New Zealand focused on transitioning society away from its dependency on fossil fuels and combating climate change.

The University of Canterbury is New Zealand's second oldest university.

Results

Christchurch mayoral election, 2016^[13]^[14]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Best for Christchurch	Lianne Dalziel	75,524	83.86	+12.29
	Keep Our Assets	John Minto	13,117	14.57	+14.57
	Economic Euthenics	Tubby Hansen	1,414	1.57	+1.21
Majority			62,407	69.30	+20.48
Total valid votes			90,055	99.91
Informal votes			82	0.09	-0.10
Turnout			90,137	37.4	-5.2
Registered electors			241,210

By ward

Source:^[15]

	Dalziel		Minto		Hansen		Total valid votes
Ward	#	%	#	%	#	%	#
Banks Peninsula	2,395	78.96	612	20.18	26	0.86	3,033
Burwood	5,171	86.69	718	12.04	76	1.27	5,965
Cashmere	5,633	81.95	1158	16.85	83	1.21	6,874
Central	2,986	76.68	838	21.52	70	1.80	3,894
Coastal	4,694	80.69	1037	17.83	86	1.48	5,817
Fendalton	6,066	88.65	671	9.81	106	1.55	68,43
Halswell	6,039	87.85	715	10.40	120	1.75	6,874
Harewood	5,670	87.91	693	10.74	87	1.35	6,450
Heathcote	6,037	82.34	1208	16.48	87	1.19	7,332
Hornby	4,285	82.40	803	15.44	112	2.15	5,200
Innes	4,104	83.01	767	15.51	73	1.48	4,944
Linwood	4,015	78.79	987	19.37	94	1.84	5,096
Papanui	5,161	86.09	728	12.14	106	1.77	5,995
Riccarton	3,514	82.82	628	14.80	101	2.38	4,243
Spreydon	4,363	82.35	852	16.08	83	1.57	5,298
Waimairi	5,391	86.99	702	11.33	104	1.68	6,197
Total	75,524	83.39	13,117	15.03	1,414	1.58	90,055

Related Research Articles

Clayton James Cosgrove is a former New Zealand politician. He is a member of the Labour Party.

The Mayor of Christchurch is the head of the municipal government of Christchurch, New Zealand, and presides over the Christchurch City Council. The mayor is directly elected using a First Past the Post electoral system. The current mayor, Lianne Dalziel, was first elected in the October 2013 mayoral election and was re-elected in October 2016. The current deputy mayor is Andrew Turner.

Vicki Susan Buck was Mayor of Christchurch, New Zealand for nine years from 1989. She retired after three terms, having been very popular. She successfully attempted a political comeback, standing in the 2013 local elections in the Riccarton-Wigram ward as councillor for Christchurch City Council, being returned with the highest number of votes across all city wards. She subsequently accepted the role of deputy mayor.

The Christchurch City Council is the local government authority for Christchurch in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority elected to represent the 388,400 people of Christchurch. Since October 2013, the Mayor of Christchurch is Lianne Dalziel, who succeeded Bob Parker. The council currently consists of 16 councillors elected from sixteen wards, and is presided over by the Mayor, who is elected at large. The number of elected members and ward boundaries changed prior during the 2016 election.

Christchurch Central is a New Zealand parliamentary electorate in the South Island city of Christchurch. The electorate was established for the 1946 election and, until 2011 had always been won by the Labour Party. Since 2008, the incumbent was Brendon Burns but the election night results for the 2011 election resulted in a tie; the special vote results combined with a judicial recount revealed a 47-vote majority for Nicky Wagner, the National list MP based in the electorate. Wagner significantly increased her winning margin in the 2014 election after having declared the electorate "unwinnable" for National earlier in the year following a boundary review.

Christchurch East, originally called Christchurch City East, is a current New Zealand parliamentary electorate. It was first created for the 1871 election and was abolished for two period, from 1875–1905 and again from 1946–1996. It was last created for the introduction of the MMP voting system for the 1996 election. The current MP is Poto Williams, a member of the New Zealand Labour Party who was first elected in the 2013 Christchurch East by-election.

The 2010 Christchurch mayoral election 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.

The 2013 New Zealand local elections were triennial elections to select local government officials and District Health Board members, and the membership of other local bodies such as Licensing Trusts. All elections were conducted by postal ballot, with election day being Saturday 12 October 2013.

The 2013 Christchurch mayoral election was part of the New Zealand local elections and was won by former MP Lianne Dalziel. The elections were held on 12 October 2013 for the Mayor of Christchurch plus other local government roles.

The 2013 Wellington City mayoral election is part of the New Zealand local elections. On 12 October 2013, elections were held for the Mayor of Wellington plus other local government roles. Wade-Brown was re-elected.

A by-election was held in the New Zealand electorate of Christchurch East on 30 November 2013. The seat was vacated following the resignation of Lianne Dalziel of the Labour Party from parliament, who contested and won the Christchurch mayoralty in October 2013.

The 2016 New Zealand local elections were triennial elections to select local government officials and District Health Board members. Under section 10 of the Local Electoral Act 2001, 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 8 October 2016.

An election was held for the office of Mayor of Auckland on 12 October 2013. It was one of many triennial local elections that took place in Auckland and throughout New Zealand at the time.

Tutehounuku "Nuk" Korako is a New Zealand politician who was elected to the House of Representatives at the 2014 general election as a representative of the National Party.

Container Mall was a temporary mall built from shipping containers in Christchurch Central City, New Zealand. It had been a response to the 22 February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, which destroyed most buildings in City Mall, and resulted in the central city being cordoned off from public access while buildings were being demolished. Initially considered a short-term response to the lack of permanent buildings, Re:START was popular with locals and tourists alike and remained open for business until January 2018.

The Christchurch City mayoral election, 1935 was held on 8 May 1935. The incumbent, Dan Sullivan of the Labour Party narrowly beat the conservative candidate, Hugh Acland, a surgeon and World War I veteran. The election attracted nationwide attention, as Christchurch was a Labour-stronghold and due to Acland's widespread popularity, it was regarded as a test whether Labour could potentially win the November 1935 general election.

The Mayor of Selwyn is the head of the municipal government of Selwyn District in New Zealand's South Island. The mayor is directly elected using a first-past-the-post electoral system. The immediate past mayor, Kelvin Coe, did not stand for re-election in the 2016 New Zealand local elections. The district's fifth mayor, Sam Broughton, was elected on 8 October 2016 in the 2016 New Zealand local elections.

The People's Choice is a centre-left political ticket that contests elections for the Christchurch City Council, and the Canterbury Regional Council in Christchurch, New Zealand.

The 2019 Christchurch mayoral election is part of the New Zealand local elections that will be held on 12 October 2019. The official results of the election will be declared between 17 and 23 October 2019.

References

↑ "Christchurch City Council 2016 Triennial Elections Preliminary Result" (PDF). Christchurch City Council . 9 Oct 2016.
↑ "Preliminary voter turnout 2016". Local Government New Zealand . LGNZ. 11 October 2016. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
↑ Stylianou, Georgina; Truebridge, Nick (12 August 2016). "Hats in the ring". The Press . p. A7. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
↑ Stylianou, Georgina (2 September 2016). "Mayoral candidates give their vision for Christchurch". The Press. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
↑ "Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel running for second term". The New Zealand Herald . 25 April 2016.
↑ Stylianou, Georgina (12 July 2016). "Keep Our Assets run John Minto as Christchurch mayoral candidate". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
↑ Ensor, Blair; Spink, Emily (26 April 2016). "I won't walk away from city – Dalziel". The Press . pp. A1, A3. Retrieved 2 July 2016.
↑ Law, Tina (20 September 2016). "Christchurch's cost share agreement to be debated publicly, Mayor says". The Press . Fairfax New Zealand. Archived from the original on 20 September 2016.
↑ Matthews, Philip (10 September 2016). "Lianne's last campaign".
↑ "Christchurch mayoralty rivals Dalziel and Minto debate issues". RNZ National. 21 September 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
↑ "Christchurch Mayoral Debate: A climate-smart Christchurch". University of Canterbury. Archived from the original on 20 September 2016.
↑ "Christchurch mayoral debate sold out". The Press . Fairfax New Zealand. 20 September 2016. Archived from the original on 20 September 2016.
↑ "Christchurch City Council – 2016 Triennial Elections – Declaration of Result" (PDF). Christchurch City Council. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
↑ "Christchurch City Council – 2016 Triennial Elections – Election Returns". Christchurch City Council. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
↑ "Christchurch City Council 2016 Triennial Elections Mayoralty – votes by ward" (PDF). Christchurch City Council. Retrieved 3 February 2017.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] "Christchurch City Council 2016 Triennial Elections Preliminary Result" (PDF). Christchurch City Council . 9 Oct 2016.

[2] "Preliminary voter turnout 2016". Local Government New Zealand . LGNZ. 11 October 2016. Retrieved 15 October 2016.

[Nominations_closed-3] Stylianou, Georgina; Truebridge, Nick (12 August 2016). "Hats in the ring". The Press . p. A7. Retrieved 13 August 2016.

[4] Stylianou, Georgina (2 September 2016). "Mayoral candidates give their vision for Christchurch". The Press. Retrieved 20 September 2016.

[5] "Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel running for second term". The New Zealand Herald . 25 April 2016.

[6] Stylianou, Georgina (12 July 2016). "Keep Our Assets run John Minto as Christchurch mayoral candidate". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 12 July 2016.

[won't_walk_away-7] Ensor, Blair; Spink, Emily (26 April 2016). "I won't walk away from city – Dalziel". The Press . pp. A1, A3. Retrieved 2 July 2016.

[8] Law, Tina (20 September 2016). "Christchurch's cost share agreement to be debated publicly, Mayor says". The Press . Fairfax New Zealand. Archived from the original on 20 September 2016.

[9] Matthews, Philip (10 September 2016). "Lianne's last campaign".

[10] "Christchurch mayoralty rivals Dalziel and Minto debate issues". RNZ National. 21 September 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2016.

[11] "Christchurch Mayoral Debate: A climate-smart Christchurch". University of Canterbury. Archived from the original on 20 September 2016.

[12] "Christchurch mayoral debate sold out". The Press . Fairfax New Zealand. 20 September 2016. Archived from the original on 20 September 2016.

[2016_results-13] "Christchurch City Council – 2016 Triennial Elections – Declaration of Result" (PDF). Christchurch City Council. Retrieved 3 February 2017.

[14] "Christchurch City Council – 2016 Triennial Elections – Election Returns". Christchurch City Council. Retrieved 3 February 2017.

[15] "Christchurch City Council 2016 Triennial Elections Mayoralty – votes by ward" (PDF). Christchurch City Council. Retrieved 3 February 2017.