Call To Review Voting System in Christchurch in Wake of By-Elections
Monday 13 March 2023, 5:55PM
By RedPR
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Is First Past The Post (FPP) serving us well in Christchurch and Banks Peninsula?
That’s the question newly elected Innes Community Board member Ali Jones is asking after another by election has been signalled.
Member and chair of the Banks Peninsula Community Board, Reuben Davidson, will be stepping down from his local government role to contest the central government election for Labour at the end of the year.
Jones recently won the Innes Community Board seat after Shreejana Chhetri resigned 17 days after being elected earl last October. A $75,000 by election was triggered and the board was without its full representation for more than four months.
“The fact that there’s a substantial cost and the democratic representation of an area is reduced for a significant period of time when an elected member steps down, I believe we have to look at a more nimble and cost effective way to deal with this,” she says. “People stand down for all sorts of reasons and often it can’t be helped but there must be a better way to respond to this without having to run another election.”
Jones is not necessarily promoting the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system which may assist a speedier appointment of an elected member but believes there should be community wide discussion on the issue, as a priority.
“The CCC is hardly rolling in cash and the cost of these by-elections is not insignificant. Perhaps even more importantly, the representation of a part of the city is reduced when a person resigns or even indicates they will resign. If you’re resigning to run for central government, that takes time and focus; It’s impossible for your full focus to be on your local council work. And if a member is a chair, I believe they should step down immediately from that role to enable a community board to be headed by someone who is there for the long run and can dedicate time and energy to that role,” says Jones who was chair of the Papanui Innes Community Board from 2016-2019.