Residents of the Teviot Valley have come from well behind the pack, to now lead in the percentage stakes of how many people have voted in each of the four Central Otago wards.

Only days ago local leaders were lamenting a particularly poor turnout for the local body elections in the Roxburgh area, which was recorded at about half that of Cromwell, Vincent and Maniototo.

Now, as of Wednesday (October 5), just a shade under 40 per cent (512) of Teviot’s 1,288 eligible voters have sent their papers in.

Gill Booth, Norman Dalley, Mark Jessop, Maree Ramsay and Russell Read are vying for the four available seats on the Teviot Community Board, while Sally Feinerman and Mason Robinson are competing for one council seat.

In the Maniototo where voters are only selecting Otago Regional Council representatives, 31.4 per cent of voters had done the job by Wednesday. With only four candidates standing for four seats and one for the one seat allocated to the area on council, all district elections occurred automatically.

Vincent Ward electors were slightly ahead of Cromwell yesterday at 36.4 per cent and 32.7 per cent respectively.

Halfway mark in reach? 

Electionz.com statistics show that historically between 50 and 60 per cent of eligible people will cast a vote in local elections.

Mayor Tim Cadogan fears, however, that this election may be the first ever when fewer than 50 per cent of voters contribute to the democratic process of selecting representatives for their area.

“I hope that doesn’t prove to be the case. It surprises me that roughly half of the people in Central Otago don’t want to have their voice heard in who is on the council and community boards that have a massive effect on their day to day lives.” 

Envelopes can be put in boxes at libraries and service centres up until 4pm tomorrow (Friday) and on Saturday from 9am to 12pm only at the Alexandra service centre.

Each new community board will have its first meeting from October 31 to November 3 where new members will be sworn in and selection of chairpersons and their deputies will be made.  

The new council’s first meeting will be held on October 26.