Swathes of mayors re-elected across South Island - but Selwyn’s Sam Broughton is out

Saturday, 11 October 2025

It has been another good day for the incumbents as Phil Mauger is re-elected as mayor in Christchurch, Dan Gordon keeps the helm of Waimakariri and Ben Bell holds on to Gore.

But Selwyn’s Sam Broughton and first-term Dunedin mayor Jules Radich were both thrashed in the progress results on Saturday.

With 15% of the overall vote yet to be counted in almost all South Island elections – election day and special votes will be counted in the coming days – Lydia Gliddon has won 73% of the vote so far in Selwyn, a whopping 11,341 more votes than incumbent Broughton, who gained 20% with 4156 votes.

The contest for Dunedin was fierce, with four frontrunners, but sitting mayor Jules Radich was left in the dust by voters. Sophie Barker, a popular sitting councillor, holds a 105 vote lead over Andrew Simms, a businessman who has run a well resourced campaign.

In Christchurch, Phil Mauger has won a landslide victory, progress results giving him a near 20,000 lead over main rival Sara Templeton.

All hotly contested wards in Christchurch have been won by sitting councillors as of Saturday, including Pauline Cotter in Innes, Jake McLellan in Central and Tyla Harrison-Hunt in Riccarton.

The two new councillors in Christchurch are Nathaniel Herz Jardine, of the left-leaning People’s Choice grouping, in Heathcote, and David Cartwright, of right-leaning Independent Citizens, in the Fendalton ward.

New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, also kept its mayor Wayne Brown by a decisive margin. Brown won about 90,000 more votes than the runner-up, and 54% of the overall vote, as of Saturday.

There was also no question who the next mayor of Wellington was. Andrew Little earned almost four times the next runner-up candidate, and 57% of the vote overall so far.

Around the South Island

Canterbury:

Although it was goodbye to Sam Broughton in Selwyn, Dan Gordon has decisively secured re-election in Waimakariri.

He received more than three times the votes of his opponent Paul Williams, with a margin of more than 9000 votes between them. Even the remaining election day and special votes would not be able to close the gap.

The Mackenzie district has a new mayor, with Scott Aronsen winning 58% of the vote so far despite multiple candidates and facing off against acting mayor Karen Morgan.

Morgan, who only ran for the mayoralty, stepped up after mayor Anne Munro stood down in July after announcing she had cancer. Morgan was runner-up with 21% of the vote.

The mayoral race in Waimate is close, with progress results giving incumbent Craig Rowley a lead of fewer than 80 votes. With 15% of the overall vote yet to be counted for, more than 350 votes were up for grabs.

Southland:

In Gore, incumbent mayor Ben Bell has also been returned for a second term, winning more than twice the votes of his opponent Nicky Davis.

Bell said: “I’m ecstatic. Three years ago people voted for change and now they’re voting for consistency, so I’m really pleased about that.

“It’s nice to be ahead by more than a thousand rather than actually being behind like I was this time three years ago.’’

Tom Campbell is leading the race for the Invercargill mayoralty over Alex Crackett, but even with a lead of about 1900 votes, deputy electoral officer Michael Morris said it was not possible to determine a winner. More than 2600 election day and special votes were yet to be counted.

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Incumbent Southland district mayor Rob Scott’s margin was much more comfortable, having won 78% of the vote so far, and he summed up his feeling on the result in one word: “Stoked”.

In Clutha, first-term councillor Jock Martin has been elected as the district’s new mayor. He won decisively with 3206 votes, beating deputy mayor Ken Payne, with 1787 votes.

The pair stood after long-time mayor Bryan Cadogan did not seek re-election after first becoming mayor in 2010.

Otago:

It is anyone’s guess whether Sophie Barker or Andrew Simms will take the mayoralty in Dunedin once election day and special voting has been accounted for.

The one thing that was certain was Dunedin wanted first-term mayor Jules Radich, who himself defeated a first-term mayor in 2022, dethroned.

Unlike in Christchurch, Dunedin uses a preferential voting system called single transferable vote. Instead of someone with a simple majority over their competitors, they have to achieve more than 50% of the vote, which is done by having voters rank their preferences with numbers.

Each round, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and votes are redistributed to the voter’s second choice, then third, until the final round.

Simms began round one with a lead of 9140, about 1100 more than Barker, but both with significantly more than Radich’s 2724 (which only grew to 3214 by the time he was eliminated).

Things turned around for Barker once the final left-leaning candidate Marie Laufiso was eliminated, and she took the lead.

By the final round, Barker and Simms had 12,782 and 12,677 votes respectively.

Next door in the Waitaki district, headquartered in Ōamaru, residents have a new mayor for the first time in 12 years. Melanie Tavendale secured almost twice as many as the runner-up so far.

Four-term mayor Gary Kircher did not seek re-election this year, leaving the district’s top job open to one of four candidates contesting the mayoralty.

Progress results show Tavendale with 45% of the vote, well ahead of two runner-ups who earned 25% and 21%.

In what panned out to be a hot contest between multiple candidates, the Queenstown Lakes District also appeared set for a new mayor.

John Glover has earned 35% of the vote so far, with sitting mayor Glyn Lewers at 27%. However, the relative success of two other candidates reveal how split residents felt about their prospective new leader, with Nik Kiddle at 17% of votes so far and Darren Rewi at 13%.

West Coast:

There is no doubting that Grey district mayor Tania Gibson has comfortably kept her mayoralty, with 87% of the vote. Her only opponent, Money Free Party's Richard Osmaston, lost after gaining just 451 votes.

Incumbent Buller mayor Jamie Cleine said he was already cleaning out his office after hearing he was behind Westport man Chris Russell by 135 votes.

“I’m disappointed. I set out to win but that’s the whole point of voting. There’s a mood for change and that has shown in a few results around the country,” Cleine said.

Hokitika businesswoman Jacquie Grant is leading against incumbent Westland mayor Helen Lash by just 64 votes. She said she believed she would be the oldest mayor in the country, if elected.

“I’ll be the oldest tranny mayor in the world,” she said.

The 81-year-old was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 1997 and an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2018. She runs a sock shop and exports sock-knitting machines.

She said “Hokitika came out in force” to support her campaign on rates increases in line with inflation, back to basics budgets and transparency.

Marlborough:

Nadine Taylor has won a second term as Marlborough mayor, with 85% of the votes counted.

Based on progressive results released on Saturday afternoon, Taylor had 11,829 votes, a landslide win over mayoral candidates Shaun Brown, with 735 votes, and Aniva Fruean, with 380 votes.

Taylor said she was grateful to continue her work for the region. “Very pleased and very grateful, to be elected back,” she said.

Nelson:

In Nelson, incumbent Nick Smith has retained the mayoralty.

After taking a call shortly before 3pm he announced to supporters that he had retained the chains, with 85% of votes counted, though he did not have an exact numbers yet. He thanked his supporters, volunteers and family.

Smith had arrived at his party at Lombardi’s Ristorante after attending an event at the Nelson Yacht Club, and told the Nelson Mail he was nervous but “quietly confident”.

“In politics you never know what you’re going to get”.

Tasman:

Incumbent Tasman mayor Tim King has been re-elected for a third term, and what he says will be his final triennium in the region’s top job.

Based on progressive results released on Saturday afternoon, the first of three counts, King came out on top over four other candidates ‒ Maxwell Clark, Richard Johns, Timo Neubauer, and Richard Osmaston, for his third stint at leading the Tasman District Council.

In early results, King received 8651 votes, while his closest rival Richard Johns won 3286, giving King a comfortable majority of at least 5000 votes. Timo Neubauer, the next closest candidate, received 3179 votes.

Kaikōura:

In Kaikōura, incumbent Craig Mackle will return for a third term as mayor.

He received 1111 votes ahead of councillor John Diver, who got 332 votes. Dave Anderson finished third with 77 votes.

Environment Canterbury:

Three-term regional councillor Peter Scott has been re-elected to represent South Canterbury on Environment Canterbury alongside fellow incumbent Nick Ward.

Scott was one of three choices for South Canterbury voters, running alongside fellow Ward and newcomer Toni Severin for two seats.

Ward was the highest polling of the three with 12,300 votes, putting him well ahead of Scott’s 8403 and Severin’s 6764.

The overall turnout was sitting on 43.8% (19,144 votes).