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Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull is back to lead the city for another three years, more than 5000 votes ahead of his closest rival.
His re-election came as some Otago regions rang in changes but some stuck with incumbents.
Jim Boult won a resounding victory in Queenstown Lakes, while Tim Cadogan comfortably unseated Tony Lepper to become Central Otago’s new mayor.
Gary Kircher won a second term in Waitaki, and Clutha’s Bryan Cadogan was unopposed.
Dunedin’s standing councillors were re-elected, and 43 candidates vied for six vacancies.
Some voters reported that range of choice made voting hard work under the new voting system, under which there was just one ward, and every voter could vote for every councillor.
The results came though after a late flurry of votes on Saturday morning helped lift voter returns above last election’s 43.4%, though yesterday at 10.30am they were still a disappointing 45.1%.
By Saturday afternoon, Mr Cull emerged as winner of the race for mayoralty, gaining 17,229 votes under the STV system, a reduction compared with his last two election wins.
His vote was well short of the 22,832 when he won for the first time in 2010, though not far behind his 18,446 votes in 2013.
The big mover this year was Cr Lee Vandervis, who at 11,806 more than doubled his vote of 5841 in 2013.
Mr Cull said he felt "very grateful" to the Dunedin community for supporting him.
Asked his thoughts on his declining numbers over each election, Mr Cull responded: "I won. I’m not even going to get into the analysis.
"There’s all sorts of reasons why things change from election to election.
"The bottom line is that I’m delighted to have received the endorsement and support of the community."
Mr Cull said his job was to vindicate that for the next three years.
Cr Vandervis said he was disappointed by the result.
"I am obviously disappointed not to be leading the Dunedin City Council into a new business-like era of living within our means, better infrastructure, and cashing up liabilities like [council-owned companies] Delta and Aurora," he said by email.
"I am encouraged that so many voters made me Dunedin’s highest polling councillor."
Cr Vandervis said more than twice as many people voted for a mayor other than Mr Cull.
He looked forward to continuing to represent Dunedin voters "to the best of my abilities".
Candidate Barry Timmings received 9308 votes: Cr Andrew Whiley 6187; Aaron Hawkins 4233; Jim O’Malley 3428; Conrad Stedman 2406; Rachel Elder 2055; Scout Barbour-Evans 1043; Abe Gray 739 and Athol Bayne 607.
Mayoral candidate Scout Barbour-Evans fell just short of the votes required for election to the council.