Hutt City Council’s preliminary results for the local body elections are available. They include all votes cast other than special votes.

This year there were 1349 special votes.

The preliminary results update the progress results from Saturday and include the previously uncounted votes cast between midday Friday 10 October and midday Saturday 11 October, when polls closed.

Based on the preliminary results, Ken Laban is Mayor-elect with 10,970 votes. He was followed by Brady Dyer with 8858 votes, Karen Morgan with 7244 votes and Prabha Ravi with 4657 votes.

Successful candidates in the wards are:

• Council at Large (5 vacancies): Brady Dyer, Prabha Ravi, Tony Stallinger, Karen (Kaz) Yung and Mele Tonga-Grant
• Western Ward (1 vacancy): Chris Parkin
• Harbour Ward (1 vacancy): Tui Lewis was the only nomination and was elected unopposed
• Northern Ward (2 vacancies): Andy Mitchell and Naomi Shaw were the only nominations received and were elected unopposed.
• Central Ward (2 vacancies): Simon Edwards and Glenda Barratt
• Wainuiomata Ward (1 vacancy): Keri Brown was the only nomination and was elected unopposed

The successful candidates for the Community Boards are:

• Wainuiomata Community Board (6 vacancies): Anaru Ryall, Lesa Bingley, Daniel Chrisp, Nicky Smith, Vatau Sagaga and Lahraine Sagaga
• Eastbourne Community Board: (5 vacancies): Jeremy Chaston, Murray Gibbons, Ben Hainsworth, Emily Keddell and Bruce Spedding were the only nominations and were elected unopposed.

Voters opted to keep the Māori Ward. There were19,316 votes in favour and 11,479 against.

In the non-binding poll, voters were in favour of working with other councils in the Wellington region to explore the possibility of creating one single council with 16,910 in favour and 13,947 against.

Once the special votes are counted, final results are expected to be released on Thursday 16 October, though this may change.

Meanwhile, Hutt City Council staff welcomed Mayor-elect Ken Laban to his office at Laings Rd this afternoon. Samoan Chief Pauli Sola Nei, Parking Operations Lead, welcomed him with Fa’a Sāmoa on behalf of the staff. Members of Council’s waiata group sang as Ken Laban walked through to be greeted by Chief Executive Jo Miller and Council staff.

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