The Mayor of Selwyn is the head of the municipal government of

Selwyn District Selwyn District is a predominantly rural district in central Canterbury, on the east coast of New Zealand's South Island. It is named after the Selwyn River / Waikirikiri, which is in turn named after Bishop George Selwyn, the first Anglican bis ...

in New Zealand's

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

. The mayor is directly elected using a

first-past-the-post electoral system 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 ...

. The immediate past mayor,

Kelvin Coe Kelvin Coe OBE (18 September 19469 July 1992) was an Australian ballet dancer and the first male artist to be promoted from the corps de ballet in the Australian Ballet principal dancer. He died of AIDS related illness in 1992. Dancing career ...

, 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 longest-serving mayor was Michael McEvedy, serving for twelve years.

History

Selwyn District was established as part of the

1989 local government reforms The 1989 New Zealand local government reform was the most significant reform of local government in New Zealand in over a century. Some 850 local bodies were amalgamated into 86 local authorities, made up of regional and territorial levels. Backg ...

. It was formed from Ellesmere County, Malvern County, and part of Paparua County. The first mayor, Anne Hurford, is from an old Ellesmere farming family. The second mayor, Bill Woods, also held the mayoralty for one term (1992–1995). Woods is a

perennial candidate A perennial candidate is a political candidate who frequently runs for elected office and rarely, if ever, wins. Perennial candidates' existence lies in the fact that in some countries, there are no laws that limit a number of times a person can ...

and once stated to be "addicted" to elections; he is one of five candidates in the 2016 mayoral election. Michael McEvedy was mayor for four terms from 1995 to 2007, when he retired. At the 2007 election,

took over from McEvedy, being successful against four other candidates. At the 2010 election, Coe defended himself against a challenge by former mayor Woods. At the 2013 election, there were six candidates for the mayoralty (including former mayor Woods and then-future mayor Broughton), but Coe remained successful. During the 2016 election, Coe stood down (after serving three terms) and five candidates contested the election, including former mayor Woods. Sam Broughton was elected and at the time, became one of the country's youngest mayors ever at the age of 35. At the 2019 election, Broughton won his second term as mayor, contesting against former mayor Woods. At the 2022 election, Sam Broughton won a third term in office, running against Calvin Payne and former mayor Woods.

History

List of mayors of Selwyn

Timeline

References