Time To Get Candid With The Candidates

Wednesday, 3 September 2025, 2:24 pm
Article: Kira Carrington - Local Democracy Reporter

They say knowledge is power, and in election season that knowledge-power combo comes in the shape of an informed vote. 

With voter turnout stalling in recent years, meet-the-candidate evenings might just be the place to encourage voters to bump up their knowledge and exercise their power. 

The Marlborough Chamber of Commerce and the Marlborough Express have again teamed up to co-host an event next week, on Thursday, September 11. 

The event is set to take place from 5-7pm at the Lansdowne Park Pavilion in Blenheim. 

The Endeavour Park Pavilion Committee, the Picton Business Group, Federated Farmers Marlborough and Grey Power Marlborough are also hosting events this month. 

The Chamber of Commerce-Marlborough Express event is for mayoral, Blenheim ward and Marlborough Sounds wards candidates. 

The candidates in the Wairau-Awatere and Māori wards have been auto-elected as the number of candidates standing matches the number of seats available. 

Marlborough Chamber of Commerce executive officer Kylie Cornelius explained the format of their event.

It would start with opening statements from the candidates. 

They had one minute each. 

That would be followed by a round of fun, quick-fire questions to break the ice and peel back the politicking for a moment. 

It was then time to tackle the burning issues for Marlborough this election. 

Questions supplied by chamber members and Express readers would be placed into individual bags.

Candidates would pick a bag and answer the question from that bag. 

The candidates would be given the questions 24 hours before the event to prepare, but they wouldn’t know which question they were getting. 

There would be 30 minutes of networking at the end.

The free event was open to everyone in Marlborough, Cornelius said. “[We’re] giving the public in general a chance to hear from the candidates and make an informed decision before they vote”.

“This is an impartial event. We've got no agendas, no bias, we're giving every candidate equal opportunity to have their say.” 

The Wairau-Awatere and Māori ward candidates had been invited to attend regardless so they could take part in the networking part of the evening. 

“I just really hope that people understand how important it is to have your say, it's democracy,” Cornelius said.

“I think it's really important as a country that we have a robust voting system, so people should be making the most of it. 

“We want to make sure that people turn out, because local body elections have had such a low turnout traditionally. 

“Anything that we can do to boost that and get engagement around people actually sending back their voting papers is massive.” 

Anyone planning to attend the event is encouraged to register at the Marlborough Chamber of Commerce events page.

Reader questions for candidates can be sent to ian.allen@stuff.co.nz. 

Meet-the-candidate events 

Endeavour Park Pavilion Committee: 

Wednesday, September 3, 6.30-9.30pm at Port Marlborough Endeavour Park Pavilion. 

Federated Farmers Marlborough:

Tuesday, September 9, 7-9pm at Woodbourne Tavern in Renwick. 

Grey Power Marlborough: 

Monday, September 22 at 10am and 7pm at Star of the Sea Catholic Parish in Blenheim, and at Marina Cove in Picton on September 25 at 2pm. 

-LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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