Diane McCarthy

Local democracy reporter

Māori wards appear to be the only clear winner in the Whakatāne District Council election.

As progress results are counted, only 19 votes separate the two leading candidates in the race for the Whakatāne mayoralty.

Current mayor Victor Luca is currently leading with 2723 votes. Nandor Tanczos is just behind him with 2704, as of Saturday 3pm.

The referendum on whether to retain Māori wards in the district has seen 5569 people vote to keep them against 3707 not wanting to keep them.

Mark Inman is running in third place for the mayoralty with 1306, followed by Andrew Iles with 1166, Philip Jacobs with 970 and Wilson James with 625.

Carolyn Hamill has proven hugely popular with voters for one of four seats on the Whakatāne-Ōhope ward with 3184 votes.

Lesley Immink (2450) and Julie Jukes (2323) also look to have been returned and Malcolm Whitaker (1957) is currently looking safe with more than 100 votes between him and Brendon Horan (1826).

Chris Barnard (1567) and Dave Stewart (1526) are trailing.

Maori ward candidates Toni Boynton and Tu O’Brien look to be safely returned to their seats and current community board member Jessie Morgan-Ranui is well in the lead for the Toi ki Uta Māori ward seat being vacated by Ngapera Rangiaho.

These results only include votes made before Saturday. Preliminary results including votes cast on Saturday morning are expected to be available on Sunday.

These will not include special votes, which will be counted next week. Full results will be given by next Friday.

Māori wards provide only new faces on Ōpōtiki council

While Māori wards will add three new names to Ōpōtiki District Council this local election, all the other seats will be familiar faces.

With about 90 percent of votes counted, progress results show current Mayor David Moore, with 1825 votes, has a clear lead over his opponent Curley Keno with 658.

In the Coast Māori ward Papa Wharewera, with 239 votes looks likely to take the seat against Haki McRoberts with 79, and in the urban Ōpōtiki Māori ward, Maude Maxwell (418) and Curley Keno (332) look to have won the two available seats over Linda Steel (275).

Current deputy mayor Shona Browne and councillor Barry Howe have outdistanced the competition for the two urban general ward seats, and two other current councillor Dean Petersen and Steve Nelson also have clear leads in the rural general ward.

Clear win for Māori wards in Kawerau

With the majority of votes counted, it is looking certain that Kawerau District Council will be retaining both its Māori wards and its current mayor in the local election.

Progress results, which include all votes received as of Friday night, show that in the Māori ward referendum, 1247 have voted to keep Māori wards and just 592 have voted not to keep them.

Current mayor Faylene Tunui has received a clear majority of votes with 1336 compared to Carolyn Ion’s 547.

It appears that Mrs Ion will not be returning as councillor either as the two vacancies on the Kawerau district at large she also stood for have current councillors Sela Kingi, with 1120 votes and Berice Julian, with 1079 votes comfortably ahead of her 899.

The three Kawerau general ward seats have Justin Ross (896) Anthony Worsley (716) and Tracy Hill (524) well ahead of Mel Drummond (245).

The three new Māori ward seats have the closest competition, though Waikite Apiata has taken a clear lead with 529 votes.

Gloria Te Paki Leokava-Taani (391) also looks safe, but only 20 votes separate Mal Dowie (352) and Lyzette Howard (322).

Final results are expected to be released by Thursday.

-LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.