Preliminary results from the Vincent ward by-election showed veterinarian Andrew Dowling well ahead of the other two candidates and likely to be pulling up a chair at the Central Otago District Council table at its next meeting.
Shortly after voting closed at noon yesterday Mr Dowling had 1164 votes, 300 ahead of the next candidate, former council staff member Louise van der Voort, who had 864 votes. The third candidate, business owner Nat Jamieson, was 21 votes behind on 843.
It had been hard to engage people in the by-election so close to October’s local body elections, Mr Dowling said.
"Everyone’s done their civic duty and done their voting last year."
Campaigning had been a great way to meet a lot of people in the district, although as a veterinarian with PGG Wrightson and president of Mountain Bikers of Alexandra he came across a wide range of people every day, Mr Dowling said.
He was looking forward to his new role and had ideas of what he would like to achieve.
Two things had stood out to him during the campaign.
A lot of people did not know what services were already available in Alexandra and council information, such as the long-term plan, were not easily understood by many, he said.
"So we’ve got to find ways of getting people to read these documents and know what is happening. You know, the information is there."
The sheer volume of information was also a barrier for many people.
"They don’t pick up big novels and go, ‘yippee’. So you show them a document of 50 pages, they’re like, ‘no thanks’.
"And reading is not everyone’s forte either, so you’ve got to keep your communications concise."
Representing people and being a conduit for information was his goal, Mr Dowling said.
"Where we don’t have information, assumptions fill the gap and nowadays assumptions can spread like wildfire."
The Vincent ward vacancy opened following October’s election when councillor-elect Dave McKenzie stepped down days after being elected in the Vincent ward, blaming an online campaign against him.
After an initial slow start, the three candidates were nominated within days of the closing date of December 22.
An hour before voting closed yesterday just over a third of voters had had their say on who should represent them around the council table.
Final results are expected by tomorrow afternoon.
