The 1974 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 The city of Lower Hutt, New Zealand, was first proclaimed a borough on 1 February 1891. Prior to this it had been part of Hutt County, initially as a Roads Board and from 1881 as a Town Board. Since 2019, the mayor has been Campbell Barry. Li ...

plus other local government positions including sixteen city councillors, also elected triennially. The polling was conducted using the standard

first-past-the-post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

electoral method.

Background

The incumbent Mayor,

John Kennedy-Good Sir John Kennedy-Good (8 August 1915 – 11 July 2005) was a New Zealand politician. He was mayor of Lower Hutt from 1970 to 1986. Biography Early life and career Kennedy-Good was born in 1915 in Goulburn, New South Wales, where his father was ...

, stood for a third term. The Citizens' Association had mended its relationship with Kennedy-Good in 1973 and his combined ticket from the previous election had merged back in to the Citizens' Association ticket. The renewed unity helped Kennedy-Good to win a much increased majority against his only challenger, deputy mayor

John Seddon John Seddon is a British occupational psychologist and author, specialising in change in the service industry. He is the managing director of Vanguard, a consultancy company he formed in 1985 and the inventor of ' The Vanguard Method'. Vangua ...

, and also for the Citizens' to win a large council majority, where Labour previously held a plurality of seats. This was the first election in the city after the voting age had been lowered from 20 to 18. Few 18 and 19 year-olds actually voted in the election however and the few that did had come to polling stations together with a parent. According to the chief returning officer the average age of voters at the election was 50.

Mayoral results

Councillor results

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Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lower Hutt Mayoral Election, 1974 Mayoral elections in Lower Hutt 1974 elections in New Zealand Politics of the Wellington Region