No places changed when the final results were tallied so the resignation of Vincent ward councillor-elect Dave McKenzie on Tuesday triggers a by-election.
In a statement, Mr McKenzie said he was resigning as online accusations of financial misconduct while he was working for the council eight years ago were too much for his family to endure.
Despite there being just 33 votes between Mr McKenzie and the next-highest-polling candidate (former council planning and infrastructure group manager Louise van der Voort) the Local Electoral Act requires a by-election be held.
Deputy returning officer Sarah Reynolds said once a candidate’s nomination was accepted they could only withdraw due to medical incapacitation.
Nominations for the by-election are expected to open late next month and the election will be held in February. Until then the council will operate with one member short.
It is expected the nomination period for the by-election will run from November 24 to December 22 and voting will take place between January 30 and March 3, Mrs Reynolds said.
"We are still working through the details for this," she said.
The last by-election in Central Otago was for the Cromwell Community Board after the last local body elections in 2022.
Just enough nominations to fill the seats were received and when Sarah Browne won a council seat for the ward that left the board one member short.
Mrs Reynolds said that by-election had cost ratepayers $42,000.
Since then costs, including postage, had gone up so the cost would be higher this time.
Mayor Tamah Alley, whose win was cemented with an extra 860 votes in the final count, said the district achieved a voter turnout of 55.08% in this month’s election — significantly higher than the national average for local body elections and one of the highest in the South Island.
"I am delighted to see our voter turnout well above the last election (46.85%).0 .
"While we didn’t quite get over the 60% I was hoping for, we certainly bucked the downwards trend we’ve seen in the last decade.
"This council will be working hard to ensure even more of our people want to make sure their vote contributes to democracy."
Mrs Alley surged further ahead from her rivals in the final results with 5990 votes, more than two and a-half times more than Charlie Sanders (2225 ) and nearly four times as many as Mark Quinn (1542).
