Former Green Party chief of staff Tory Whanau has been elected as Wellington’s next mayor, according to a progress result released this afternoon.
Incumbent Mayor Andy Foster finished second with Ray Chung third and Paul Eagle, surprisingly, fourth.
The WCC announced that Tory Whanau received 29,458 votes compared to Mr Foster’s 13,032 votes – a margin of 16,426 votes.
Don’t bother with the negative Twitter narrative about election meetings hosted by Residents’ Associations. This week’s meetings have all been well organised, disciplined and most had hot drinks and a chance to meet the candidates. The RAs have supported local democracy by hosting good face-to-face events in suburban halls and churches.
The Wellington local election campaign is coming to an end and it would be overstating things to say it has been dull. The only pinch of excitement came with the emergence of a young Māori wahine, carrying progressive values.
When the debates started, it all went downhill. There have been dozens of them, and the only takeaway is that all candidates want a vibrant, inclusive, green city. This set of commonplaces is not helping to differentiate one candidate from another, for example during the conclusion of the Spinoff debate. On the policy front, they all say they’ll achieve their “vision” with better bus services (over which they have zero control) and more housing. And since I want to vote on a vision and its supporting policies, and not for a person, it’s been very hard, listening to the debates and reading candidates’ websites, to feel we have a choice.
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