The 2010 New Zealand local elections were triennial elections to select local government officials and district health board members. All elections are conducted by

postal ballot An absentee ballot is a vote cast by someone who is unable or unwilling to attend the official polling station to which the voter is normally allocated. Methods include voting at a different location, postal voting, proxy voting and online v ...

, with election day being Saturday 9 October 2010. Elected were: * Mayors and councillors for all 67 territorial authority councils * Councillors for 10 regional councils, (all regional councils had elections except

Canterbury Regional Council Environment Canterbury, frequently abbreviated to ECan. is the promotional name for the Canterbury Regional Council. It is the regional council for Canterbury, the largest region in the South Island of New Zealand. It is part of New Zealand's str ...

, and the

Auckland Regional Council The Auckland Regional Council (ARC) was the regional council (one of the former local government authorities) of the Auckland Region. Its predecessor the Auckland Regional Authority (ARA) was formed in 1963 and became the ARC in 1989. The ARC ...

which will be replaced by the

Auckland Council Auckland Council ( mi, Te Kaunihera o Tāmaki Makaurau) is the local government council for the Auckland Region in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority that has the responsibilities, duties and powers of a regional council and so is a ...

) * Members of all 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) * Members for all 21 local boards of the

* Various local and community boards and licensing trusts. Except for all DHBs and six territorial authorities, officials were elected by the

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 thei ...

system. Members of DHBs and mayors and councillors in six territorial authorities, including

Wellington City Wellington City Council is a territorial authority in New Zealand, governing the country's capital city Wellington, and ''de facto'' second-largest city (if the commonly considered parts of Wellington, the Upper Hutt, Porirua, Lower Hutt and ...

and Dunedin City, were elected using the

Single Transferable Vote Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...

system.

Dates

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 9 October 2010. Key dates for the election as set out by the Local Government Commission and Elections New Zealand are:

Changes in 2010

Auckland Council

This was the first time elections were held for the new Auckland Council, and the

2010 Auckland mayoral election The 2010 Auckland mayoral election, was part of the 2010 New Zealand local elections. It was the first election of a mayor for the enlarged Auckland Council, informally known as the "super-city". The election was won by sitting mayor of Manukau ...

took place concurrently.

Canterbury Regional Council

The 2010 elections did not include

. In March 2010, the National Government passed special legislation deferring Canterbury Regional Council's election until 2013 and replacing the existing councillors with appointed commissioners.

Southern District Health Board

The 2010 elections were the first for the

Southern District Health Board The Southern District Health Board (Southern DHB) was a district health board which provided healthcare to an area covering the southern half of the South Island of New Zealand. In July 2022, the Southern DHB was dissolved as part of a nationwid ...

, which was formed from the merger of the

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

and Southland DHBs on 1 May 2010. The Southern DHB had 14 members from the two former boards, but was reduced to the standard seven elected members after the election.

Leftward shift

There was a notable leftward shift in the local elections throughout the country and many notable long term centre-right mayors were replaced by left-wing mayors throughout the country. In the new position of Auckland supermayor, Manukau City mayor

Len Brown Leonard Charles Brown (born 1 October 1956)) is a former mayor of Auckland, New Zealand, and former head of the Auckland Council. He won the 2010 Auckland mayoral election on 9 October 2010 and was sworn in as Mayor of Auckland on 1 Novembe ...

a Labour party politician replaced centre-right

Auckland City Auckland City was a territorial authority with city status covering the central isthmus of the urban area of Auckland, New Zealand. It was governed by the Auckland City Council from 1989 to 2010, and as a territory within the wider Auckland Re ...

mayor

John Banks John Banks or Bankes may refer to: Politics and law *Sir John Banks, 1st Baronet (1627–1699), English merchant and Member of Parliament * John Banks (American politician) (1793–1864), U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania * John Gray Banks (18 ...

. In Wellington, Green Party candidate

Celia Wade-Brown Celia may refer to: General * Celia (given name) *''Celia'', a subgenus of carabid beetles of the genus '' Amara'' *Celia, the last natural-born Pyrenean Ibex * Celia (virtual assistant), AI virtual assistant by Huawei *, a number of ships with ...

replaced right leaning,

Kerry Prendergast Dame Kerry Leigh Prendergast (née Ferrier, born 28 March 1953) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 33rd Mayor of Wellington between 2001 and 2010, succeeding Mark Blumsky. She was the second woman to hold the position, after Fran W ...

. As well as at the provincial levels new left-wing mayors replaced retiring incumbents in Wanganui and New Plymouth and incumbent mayors like that of

Janie Annear The mayor of Timaru is the directly elected head of the Timaru District Council Timaru District Council ( mi, Te Kaunihera ā-Rohe o Te Tihi o Maru) is the territorial authority for the Timaru District of New Zealand. The council is led by the ...

in Timaru defeated conservative challengers.

Individual elections

Elections are split into their respective regions: *

Auckland region Auckland () is one of the sixteen regions of New Zealand, which takes its name from the eponymous urban area. The region encompasses the Auckland Metropolitan Area, smaller towns, rural areas, and the islands of the Hauraki Gulf. Containin ...

Wellington region Greater Wellington, also known as the Wellington Region (Māori: ''Te Upoko o te Ika''), is a non-unitary region of New Zealand that occupies the southernmost part of the North Island. The region covers an area of , and has a population of T ...

Dunedin City Council The Dunedin City Council ( mi, Kaunihera ā-Rohe o Ōtepoti) is the local government authority for Dunedin in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority elected to represent the people of Dunedin. Since October 2022, the Mayor of Dunedin is Jule ...

Notable elections

* Auckland mayoral – The first mayoral election for the new Auckland Council was won by incumbent Manukau City mayor

with 221,365 votes over incumbent

mayor

by 60,198 votes. * Rangitikei mayoral – For the first time in 21 years a mayor would be re-elected unopposed in the Rangitikei District as mayor Chalky Leary was re-elected without challenge. * Wellington City mayoral – At the end of election night, incumbent

was ahead by 40 votes over city councillor

. On the Wednesday following the election, after the counting of 632 special votes, Celia Wade-Brown beat incumbent Kerry Prendergast by a total of 176 votes, 24,881 to 24,705 votes, with voter turnout of 40.11 percent, a slight increase on the 2007 election turnout of 40 percent. * Christchurch mayoral – Incumbent Bob Parker won with 68,245 votes, a majority of 16,679 over Wigram MP

Jim Anderton James Patrick Anderton (born Byrne; 21 January 1938 – 7 January 2018) was a New Zealand politician who led a succession of left-wing parties after leaving the Labour Party in 1989. Anderton's political career began when he was elected to th ...

. Initially second-place to Anderton, the vote swung in Parker's favour after his response and unintentional publicity following the 2010 Canterbury earthquake that damaged the city five weeks to the day before the election. * Dunedin mayoral – City councillor

Dave Cull David Charles Cull (1 April 1950 – 27 April 2021) was the mayor of the city of Dunedin in New Zealand. He became the 57th Mayor of Dunedin in October 2010 and was re-elected in both the 2013 mayoralty race and 2016 mayoral election. Befor ...

won with 22,382 votes at the last iteration (21,757 first preference), defeating incumbent

Peter Chin Peter Wing Ho Chin, CNZM () (born 1941) is a lawyer and was the 56th Mayor of Dunedin, New Zealand. He served two terms as Mayor from 2004 to 2010. Early life and career Peter Chin is a descendant of the earliest Chinese immigrants to New Ze ...

, who received 14,453 votes at last iteration (14,084 first preference). * Invercargill mayoral – Incumbent

Tim Shadbolt Sir Timothy Richard Shadbolt (born 19 February 1947) is a New Zealand politician. He was the Mayor of Invercargill and previously Mayor of Waitemata City. Early life Shadbolt was born in the Auckland suburb of Remuera in 1947. His father died ...

won with 16,275 votes, a majority of 10,964 over singer Suzanne Prentice.

References

External links

Elections New Zealand
– Local Elections
Local Elections 2010
– information for voters
2010 elections
at the

Auckland City Council Auckland City Council was the local government authority for Auckland City, New Zealand, from 1871 to 1 November 2010, when it and Auckland's six other city and district councils were amalgamated to form the Auckland Council. It was an elected b ...

2010 election results summary
{{New Zealand elections, state=autocollapse Local 2010 October 2010 events in New Zealand