Whangārei District Council agrees to change local election voting system

Whangārei district councillors have confirmed plans to switch to the Single Transferable Voting (STV) system for the upcoming local elections in 2025 and 2028.

The council originally voted to switch to STV in August but a motion to revoke that decision, backed by four councillors and the mayor, was considered at an extraordinary meeting earlier this week.

That motion would have retained the First Past the Post (FPP) voting system in 2025 and, at the same time as the election, polled residents on which system they wanted to use in future.

The motion lost, with six for, seven against and one abstention, which means the original decision stands.

Residents can still demand a poll on STV versus FPP, if they can gather signatures from 5 percent of eligible voters — or just over 3300 people.

Whangārei mayor Vince Cocurullo said he had wanted the public to be consulted on the issue, as with other major changes.

Whangārei mayor Vince Cocurullo.
Photo: Supplied / Sarah Marshall Photography

Cocurullo said he personally supported retaining FPP.

“I’m into keeping things simple. If you make things too complicated, people won’t vote.”

While voting itself was no more complicated under STV, the process of counting votes and deciding the winners was.

“And that does bring confusion,” Cocurullo said.

Elsewhere in Northland, the Far North District Council switched to STV ahead of last year’s local elections, while the Kaipara District Council voted to switch back to FPP earlier this year.

Kaipara was one of the frontrunners in the use of STV, making the change when the system first became available to New Zealand councils in 2004.

STV is said to deliver councils that better reflect voters’ wishes, are more representative of the community, and reduce wasted votes.

When multiple candidates are chasing a single position, such as a mayoral election, it also ensures the eventual winner has majority support.

The trade-off is a more complex – and time-consuming – method of counting votes, which is not always well understood by the voting public.

In the 2022 local elections, 15 councils used STV and 63 used FPP.

Those using STV for the first time in 2022 were the Far North District Council, Gisborne District Council, Hamilton City Council and Nelson City Council.