News

Voting closes on 9 October for local body elections, in which voters will elect their new Dunedin City Council, Otago Regional Council, and Southern District Health Board. Voting will be held by postal election (if you haven’t received your voting pack, you probably aren’t enrolled).

Seven people are running for Dunedin Mayor. Among them are current Mayor Peter Chin, current City Councillor Dave Cull, and Radio One presenter Aaron Hawkins. No polls have been conducted yet, but pundits are predicting a two-horse race between Cull and Chin. 
   In all, 39 candidates are running for the hotly contested 11 Central Ward Councillor positions. The youngest of them is 18-year-old student Jono Clarke, who is running under the slogan “Unity. Transparency. Integrity.”
   In general, however, the slogans have left a lot to be desired. DCC Councillor hopeful Olive McRae’s posters have fluctuated inconsistently between an unflattering cartoon and a bush backdrop photograph. Hawkins’ black and white masterpieces are the exception to this, although they have been the target of a counter-campaign which has gone to great lengths to disguise Hawkins as the Devil, Hitler, and most notably, Yoko Ono.
   Off the streets, a number of candidate debates have been held, beginning with the mayoral candidates forum at the Caversham Presbyterian Church Hall in August, at which Chairman Ivan Criglington praised all the candidates for their polite demeanour. The Mayoral debate on campus will be held this Tuesday 28 September in the Main Common Room.
   When asked her mayoral preference, OUSA President Harriet Geoghegan said she would wait until after the debate to decide. According to Geoghegan, a number of candidates standing for the DCC have approached her wanting to discuss student issues, namely Aaron Hawkins, Dave Cull, Kate Wilson, Jinty MacTavish, Lynn Tozer, Andrew Eames, Andrew Whiley, and Craig Watson.
   The key issues for the Mayor are likely to be maintaining and improving relationships with the University and its students, creating more job opportunities, improving transport, planning for rising costs of energy, and climate change. Most of these were themes within the mission statements of the various mayoral candidates. 
   In the ODT, Chin said his priorities if re-elected would be “the continued support of our key industries, especially education, and a concerted focus on the development of tourism.” 
   A number of candidates listed cutting DCC spending as one of their focuses. Hawkins wants to slash the salaries of top management, and 45-year-old beneficiary/ student Jimmy Knowles, who lists setting up a fairground as one of his main priorities, is going one further, promising to give back his salary to the community.
   Both the Dunedin City Council and the Southern District Health Board will be elected by Single Transferable Vote (STV), where a voter is able to rank the candidates in order of preference. In STV, candidates need to obtain a set quota of votes to be elected. All first preference votes are counted and once a candidate has reached the quota they are elected, and the remaining votes are distributed between the voters’ second preferences. The process continues until fifteen councillors are elected. 
   By contrast, the Otago Regional Council is elected using First Past the Post (FPP), whereby a voter can tick only one candidate on their voting form, and the candidates with the most votes are elected.
   Within the Dunedin City Council vote, the vote is split into the vote for the mayor, the ward and, if relevant, the community board. The DCC numbers 15 councillors in total: one mayor, eleven councillors for the Central Ward, two councillors for the Mosgiel Taieri Ward, and one councillor for the Chalmers Ward.
   There are six Community Boards: Chalmers, Mosgiel Taieri, Otago Peninsula, Saddle Hill, Strath Taieri, and Waikouaiti, each consisting of six members who are elected to the board and one city councillor who is appointed to the board. In Otago Peninsula, Saddle Hill, and Strath Taieri, the number of candidates did not exceed the number of vacancies to be filled, so all of the candidates are automatically elected to the board. Those elected to the community boards are not city councillors, but they do work with city councillors to represent the views of their specific region. 
   The Otago Regional Council consists of 11 members, and promotes the sustainable development and enhancement of Otago region’s resources. New Zealand big shot actor Sam Neill is among the candidates in the running for a position on the Otago Regional Council.
   The Southern District Health Board is the “planner, funder, and provider of public hospital and health service” for the lower South Island. It comprises seven members, four of whom are voted in by the Otago constituency.