Clutha deputy mayor Ken Payne had been the only candidate to take over from the retiring Bryan Cadogan, but Lawrence councillor Jock Martin has put his name forward to make it a race.
Elsewhere, the mayoral field is crowded in some places, with other roles also contested.
There are three people vying for the mayoral chains and an election is required in each of the four Central Otago wards.
The Cromwell and Vincent wards each have four seats and nine candidates have been nominated for Cromwell and 11 for Vincent.
The Maniototo and Teviot Valley wards each have one seat to fill and both have two candidates competing to be councillor.
In Vincent, candidates include former Central Otago District Council planning and infrastructure group manager Louise van der Voort and Gill Booth, who is also standing for the Teviot Valley Community Board.
Cromwell candidates include a mix of familiar and new faces but not current councillor Nigel McKinlay.
All the community boards in Central Otago will also have elections with more candidates than seats.
A late surge in nominations means there will be candidates for every available seat for the Clutha District Council and the West Otago and Lawrence-Tuapeka Community Boards.
Four newcomers will run against Cr Wayne Felts for his and one other Balclutha ward seat, and no fewer than six candidates have their eye on the single Milton ward seat.
Council numbers have been dropped to try to attract more candidates, which the move appears to have accomplished.
A total of 37 candidates were received for the 22 elected member roles. At least one nomination failed to finish processing at council chambers before the noon deadline.
There will be no elections in the Catlins, Kaitangata-Matau and West Otago wards, which each had a single nomination.
Gore District Mayor Ben Bell will be trying to retain his spot, and will be challenged by former councillor Nicky Davis.
The council spots are anyone’s game after four councillors — deputy mayor Keith Hovell, Glenys Dickson, Richard McPhail and Bronwyn Reid — stepped away and will not run again.
Mataura Community Board chairwoman Nicky Coats will run unopposed for the Mataura seat, as the current councillor Neville Phillips switches to run for a seat at large.
He will be running against current councillor Joe Stringer, former councillor and Mataura Community Board member Steven Dixon and newcomers Gary McIntyre and Torrone Smith, for the three available seats.
A host of new faces will be around the Waitaki District Council table, with a new mayor and at least three new councillors guaranteed.
In Waitaki, there are four nominations for mayor with encumbent Gary Kircher standing down.
Already declared mayoral candidates local heritage stalwart David Wilson, former deputy mayor Mel Tavendale and Cr Guy Percival have been joined by newly declared candidate realtor and former RNZAF helicopter pilot Kelli Williams.
None of the four will stand for a council seat.
There will be a new representative in the district’s southern-most ward with three nominations, Frans Schlack, Garry Dodd and Gervais O’Reilly, confirmed nominees for the single Waihemo ward seat. Incumbent Jim Thomson is not standing again.
Fifteen candidates will vie for the six available Oamaru ward seats with incumbents Hana Halalele, Rebecca Ryan, Jeremy Holding, Jim Hopkins and Courtney Linwood standing.
Sitting Oamaru ward councillor Tim Blackler will not stand for re-election.
In the Queenstown Lakes district mayoralty race there is just one first-time candidate — longtime Queenstown resident Darren Rewi.
He will run against incumbent Glyn Lewers, Al Angus, of Glenorchy, Kinloch’s John Glover, Nik Kiddle, of Queenstown, and Daniel Shand.
There are 21 people vying for 11 council seats, almost half of whom are first-time candidates.
Just one incumbent, Esther Whitehead (Queenstown-Wakatipu ward), first elected in a 2021 by-election, is not standing again, while existing Queenstown councillor Niki Gladding is seeking election in the Wanaka-Upper Clutha ward. A total of nine people are hunting for four seats in this ward.
In the Queenstown-Wakatipu ward, where four seats are up for grabs, first-term councillors Gavin Bartlett and Matt Wong are both seeking re-election — they’re running against first-time candidates Stephen Brent, Aaron Cowie, Rene Smith and Jon Mitchell.
Long-term councillor Craig Ferguson is also seeking election in that ward.
There are six people standing for the four-person Wanaka-Upper Clutha Community Board.
Candidate numbers have dropped off in Southland this election, with one council continuing its struggle to attract female nominees.
In Invercargill, eight people have put themselves forward for mayor and 27 for council — down from 10 and 34 respectively in 2022.
At the Southland District Council, just three people have put themselves forward for mayor and 16 for council, a dip from six and 22 respectively last outing.
Environment Southland has remained steady with 18 nominations received both this year and in 2022.
The regional council had just one female representative in the past term — Lyndal Ludlow — and only two women are competing for a seat this election.
Invercargill’s mayoral race includes deputy mayor Tom Campbell and current councillors Ria Bond, Alex Crackett and Ian Pottinger.
Other names include Andrew Clark, Stevey Chernishov, Gordon McCrone and Tom Morton.
Southland’s mayoral race includes Wendy Baker, incumbent Rob Scott and former mayor Gary Tong.
Four Southland district candidates have already been guaranteed a seat because the number of vacancies in their ward matches the number of applicants.
The same situation applies for five councillors at Environment Southland.
The most hotly contested seats will be at the Invercargill City Council, where 26 people are battling for 12 spots.
Election day is set for October 11.
