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Whangārei Faces First New Local Election Voting System Change In A Generation
Whangārei’s 67,000 voters will have to get to grips with a new voting system in the local elections this year.
Voters will need to choose their 14 Whangārei District Council (WDC) politicians via the Single Transferable Vote (STV) voting system for this year’s local elections.
This voting system change will be the first in almost a generation. WDC has used the First Past the Post (FPP) electoral system since 2001.
In an STV election a voter still gets one vote. But that’s achieved differently from FPP> An STV voter ranks candidates in preference order using numbers rather than FPP’s ticks.
The voter write 1 beside his or her favourite candidate, 2 alongside the second most favourite candidate and so on.
Voters can rank as many candidates as they like and don’t have to rank them all.
If the candidate a voter most wants to gets more votes than they need under STV to be elected because a lot of other people voted for them too, part of a voter’s vote may be transferred to his or her next choice.
The STV votes are counted in stages.
All first preference votes are counted first. To be elected candidates must reach what’s called the quota.
This is a number based on the total number of valid votes and number of vacant positions. When a candidate reaches the quota and is elected, a portion of the surplus votes go to their covers’ second choices.
All of the vote counting is done by computer using specialist software.
Far North District Council is also using STV voting system for the 2025 local elections.
Meanwhile, Kaipara District Council and Northland Regional Council are using the FPP voting system for the 2025 local elections.
Under the FPP electoral system, the candidate with the most votes wins.
The voter also gets only a single vote and that vote goes to one candidate.
Most New Zealand councils are using the FPP voting system for the 2025 local elections.
WDC and FNDC are among just 15 New Zealand councils are using the STV voting system.
-LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
Local Democracy Reporting
Content from the Local Democracy Reporting (LDR) service is published by Scoop as a registered New Zealand Media Outlet LDR Partner.
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