The race for the last available seats on the Invercargill City Council is shaping up to be a photo finish.
With 904 special votes still to be counted, it will be a tense wait for the final results, which are expected later this week.
Leading the pack is incumbent councillor Allan Arnold, who holds a comfortable 298-vote buffer over his nearest rival.
Behind him, four candidates are duking it out: Andrea De Vries with 5663 votes, incumbent Barry Stewart with 5591 votes, Lisa Tou McNaughton with 5564 votes and Ian Reeves with 5557 votes.
Lynley McKerrow and David Meades are also within striking distance, while Karl Herman is further back but still has a mathematical chance.
The council released its preliminary results yesterday, which reshuffled Saturday’s progress results.
For Mr Reeves, the updated numbers were particularly unkind, dissolving a 148-vote buffer and dropping him from 11th place to out of contention at 13th — 12 seats are available at the table.
"That’s what democracy is — that’s the way it works. So, I can live with that," he said.
Leap-frogging three candidates was Andrea De Vries, who went from 13th place to 10th over the weekend.
Ms De Vries said it had been a nerve-racking 48 hours, but she believed the final selections were always relatively close.
"It’s very exciting. I mean we don’t know the answer yet or the final result yet, so we will wait and find that out hopefully by Wednesday night, but it’s a good sign so far."
Lisa Tou McNaughton remained steady in 12th place but had watched a 12-vote buffer reduce to just seven.
The self-described optimist said the result was in God’s hands.
"If I’m meant to be there, I’m meant to be there. If I’m not, I will still carry on doing the things that I do in the community anyway."
Incumbent councillor Barry Stewart dropped from 10th to 11th in the rankings but said he was still feeling "pretty confident".
He said bringing up "the te reo subject" might have got him offside with some voters.
The first-term councillor previously made headlines for saying he would oppose the use of te reo Māori.
Tom Campbell has been declared as the city’s mayor-elect with 6815 votes so far and is followed in second place by Alex Crackett with 4940 votes.
The new council is set to be sworn in on October 28, and the first meeting is scheduled for November 4.
The voter turnout for Invercargill is just under 45% so far, worse than both 2022 and 2019.
Preliminary results
For Invercargill City Council
Mayoralty: Tom Campbell 6815, Alex Crackett 4940, Ian Pottinger 2272, Ria Bond 1731, Tom Morton 670, Andrew Clark 278, Stevey Chernishov 214, Gordon McCrone 63.
Council (12 vacancies): Steve Broad 11,143, Alex Crackett 9703, Grant Dermody 8129, Marcus Lush 8128, Trish Boyle 7267, Darren Ludlow 7177, Ria Bond 7153, Ian Pottinger 7027, Allan Arnold 5961, Andrea De Vries 5663, Barry Stewart 5591, Lisa Tou McNaughton 5564, Ian Reeves 5557, Lynley McKerrow 5402, David Meads 5274, Karl Herman 4670, Terry King 4592, Chris Dawson 4403, Jay Coote 3954, Pania Coote 3746, Tony van der Lem 3673, Tom Morton 3160, Carl Heenan 2911, Dan O'Connell 2258, Amanda Laurie 2051, Noel Peterson 1256, Carol Jasperse 972.
— Matthew Rosenberg, Local democracy reporter
— LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
