The West Coast Regional Council has voted on its preferred electoral system for the next council elections in 2028, despite the fact regional councils will be abolished before then.

WCRC office of the chief executive group manager Jo Field told councillors at a meeting last week they were still required to choose their preferred voting system, despite regional councils being legislated out of existence under the government’s amalgamation proposals.

‘‘We have a requirement to adopt which voting system we would like to use for future elections, noting that it is highly likely we won’t be having a future election, but we are still required by law to undertake this process.’’

Cr Ashley Cassin asked if it was guaranteed that there would be no council elections for the next triennium.

‘‘We have talked about unlikely events. Is it not 100% guaranteed there will not be regional council elections for the next triennium?’’

Chief executive Darryl Lew responded that councils still had to follow existing laws, even though councils around the country were questioning such procedures in the face of the pending abolitions.

‘‘Government is signalling what it wants to do with reform ... but it is signalling that not through any statutory processes or changes in the law or formal statutory indications,’’ Mr Lew said.

‘‘There has been commentary out of the local government sector across New Zealand noting that and also noting that a lot of these procedural matters are still in play and we have to still go through it such as a representation review which actually costs time and resources. But they have not removed all of that.’’

Cr Peter Ewen noted there had been no appetite from the opposition parties to change the local government reforms.

Councillors voted for FPP.

 

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