Based on preliminary results the newly-elected Northland Regional Council will see five new faces take their seats around the nine-strong council table after the weekend’s election.

Council Tāhūhū Rangapū - Chief Executive Jonathan Gibbard today congratulated the winning councillors on their success and expressed his thanks on behalf of both the council and the community to those former councillors who retired at the end of the last term or were unsuccessful at the weekend.

Mr Gibbard also welcomed Tui Shortland and Peter-Lucas Jones, the first councillors to be elected to the council’s new regionwide Māori constituency Te Raki.

Unsuccessful election candidates included both previous council chair Penny Smart and her deputy, Justin Blaikie, who had both served on the council for two consecutive three-year terms.

Smart, who was standing in the Kaipara general constituency, was surpassed by 228 votes by John Blackwell on preliminary results while Joe Carr (re-elected to council after an absence of several/six years) received 625 votes more than Blaikie’s third-placed result in the Far North general constituency.

The official result of the elections is expected to be declared between Thursday 13 October and Wednesday 19 October. Two candidates for the Bay of Islands-Whangaroa General Constituency Marty Robinson and Tania McInnes will be anxiously awaiting that result after Election Day gave the win to McInnes only for things to swing in Robinson’s favour when preliminary results were announced yesterday.

Robinson currently leads McInnes by 71 votes, a change from Election Day’s progress results which had McInnes ahead by 55 votes.

A powhiri for the new council will be held on Tuesday 18 October and council’s inaugural meeting will be held from 10.30am on Tuesday 25 October.

Among the new council’s first official tasks will be to elect a new chair to the $133,892 a year position and their deputy. The chair is the only councillor whose exact post-election salary has already been determined by the Remuneration Authority. That will leave $580,951 annually to be divided amongst the remaining eight councillors.

The full list of successful candidates by constituency on preliminary votes - and their winning margin over their nearest competitor - is:

.Bay of Islands-Whangaroa General Constituency; Marty Robinson- -(re-elected), 71 vote margin

Coastal Central General Constituency; Amy Macdonald- -(re-elected) 1965 vote margin

Coastal South General Constituency; Rick Stolwerk- -(elected unopposed)

Far North General Constituency; Joe Carr 911 vote margin

Kaipara General Constituency; John Blackwell 228 vote margin

Mid North General Constituency; Geoff Crawford 1873 vote margin

Te Raki Māori Constituency (two vacancies); Tui Shortland 1262 vote margin, Peter-Lucas Jones 1454 vote margin

Whangarei Central General Constituency; Jack Craw- -(re-elected) 2362 vote margin.

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