Voting papers returned as of 3:30p Wednesday the 6th:
- Hastings District: 33.10% (ranging from 25.38% in Flaxmere to 40.76% in Havelock North)
- Napier: 32.65%
- Central Hawke’s Bay: 43.31%
More detail here.
Still trying to choose?
Are you still scratching your head over candidates?
Here’s a basic starting point.
Stay the course or change.
If you’re pleased that your council rates and spending have been trimmed in the face of a depressed economy …
If you’re convinced the Bay’s environment — our water, air and soil — is improving by the day …
If you’re dazzled by the ideas you’ve heard from councillors about revitalizing and future-proofing our region’s economy …
If you’re satisfied that your council listens to you on issues like McDonald’s, holding companies, Marineland, streamlining consents …
If you believe that some councillors should serve four and five terms, effectively till they drop in their council chairs …
Then it’s simple. Stay the course and vote for incumbents.
On the other hand, if you’re not satisfied with the way things have been going lately, then it’s also simple. It’s time for a change and time for some fresh faces. Vote for challengers.
Tom Belford
P.S. Your ballot needs to get to Christchurch by Noon Saturday. If you haven’t posted your ballot by now, you better start thinking about dropping it off in person … both Hastings (next to the Hastings library) and Napier (at the Council building) will accept ballots from their respective voters delivering in person until Noon on Saturday.
Currently less than one in three Napier voters have used their democratic right and placed their vote.
That is pretty damn poor.
I'm beginning to think there should be some form of threshold where, if less than 45-50% of the voting population actually votes, the council is dissolved and anarchy rules. I bet that would spark more people into voting action (rather than the alternative pitchfork & guillotine option).
How can you say it is a fair representation of a city when the councillors (one quarter re-elected without contest) are chosen by the majority of a MAJOR minority? It doesn't seem very representative of the population at all. But it would explain why we end up with the same councillors term after term and fresh ideas, projects and forward movement stall and disappear.