One of the unsuccessful candidates for the Central Otago mayoral seat was puzzled by the election results as they came out on Saturday.
Charlie Sanders, of Cromwell, was successful in his bid for a council seat but finished well behind Mayor Tamah Alley, with 2182 votes compared to Mrs Alley’s 5876.
Mr Sanders was on his way to Christchurch when the Otago Daily Times contacted him on Saturday.
"Until I sit down and have a look at it and work out what the hell is going on and what went wrong or whatever, I don’t know. But it’s been an interesting exercise from my perspective."
When he was campaigning, people said they were very perturbed about rates increases and water and the general direction of the council, yet the election results seemed to be the exact opposite of that, he said.
"Leading up to the election, there seemed to be a reasonably big call for change ... I guess the voting is for the present just to carry on, isn’t it really?"
However, as a councillor, he would try to make things better, Mr Sanders said.
The highest polling candidates in Cromwell ward were incumbent councillors Cheryl Laws (2002) followed by Sarah Browne (1975). Mr Sanders (1570) was third and former Cromwell Community Board member Bob Scott (1455) will fill the fourth Cromwell ward seat.
Vincent ward returned Tracy Paterson (2404) and Martin McPherson (1856) as the highest polling candidates. Newcomers Nathan McLean (1785) and Dave McKenzie (1582) would be the other two councillors for the ward.
In the Maniototo, Stu Duncan was returned with 576 votes ahead of challenger Michelle Bisset on 357.
Teviot Valley Community Board member Curtis Pannett smashed the voting for the Teviot ward council seat, taking 684 votes to contender Mark Quinn’s 101.
Missing from around the Central Otago District Council table would be former councillors Lynley Claridge and Ian Cooney.
Community boards in the four wards will be a mix of familiar and new faces going into the next triennium.
Cromwell Community Board’s chairwoman Anna Harrison topped the voting (1943) with newcomer Rebecca Anderson (1744) next, followed by board member Wally Sanford (1608) and new starter Mike Casey (1559).
Maniototo Community Board lost its former chairman Rob Hazlett but kept members Duncan Helm (584), Mark Harris (497) and Becky McAulay (573). Highest polling candidate Logan Dowling (636) would be the fourth member.
Vincent Community Board would have former chairman Jayden Cromb (1973) and member Tony Hammington (1777) sitting alongside newcomers to the table highest polling candidate Karla Sanders (2670) and Jim Moffit (2262). Martin McPherson was withdrawn as he would be on the district council. Former members Dai Johns and Roger Browne were unsuccessful in their bid to be re-elected.
Similarly, Teviot Valley community board would have familiar faces Gill Booth (371) and Mark Jessop (313) working with new members Becky Slade (440) and Hayden Smith (589). Highest polling candidate Curtis Pannett was withdrawn as he gained a council seat.
