Last week to send council by-election postal votes

Rotorua residents are being reminded that they only have until the end of this week to get their votes in the post for the Rotorua District Council by-election.

Voters have until 12 noon Thursday 17 November to make their vote count, which means votes should be posted by Saturday [12 November]. For those who do not make the mail this week, voting papers can be delivered to the Rotorua District Council Civic Centre before Polling Day’s 12 noon deadline (17 November).

Six candidates are vying to replace former councillor Geoff Kenny, with nominations received from Bill Hedges, Cliff Lee, Brett Marvelly, Merepeka Raukawa-Tait, Victor Storey, and Dianne Western.

RDC deputy electoral officer Kathy Phillips says as at 10am today [8 November] 22.75% of eligible voters in the community had voted in the by-election.

“While we’re encouraged by the 23% at this stage, we’d certainly like to have more people exercise their right to vote to achieve the most democratic result possible.”

Preliminary results from the by-election are expected to be announced later in the afternoon on Polling Day (Thursday 17 November), with a formal declaration of final results to follow five days later on 22 November.