Some newspapers are reluctant to give any space to local body elections, but I was glad to see The Upper Hutt Connection last week published the Preliminary Results for the Upper Hutt City Council election that closed on 11 October. After the 15 October edition had been published, the Final count of votes concluded a couple of days later. Candidates got a few more votes but their order didn’t change, so the city councilors for the next three years are the people listed in The Upper Hutt Connection last week.

The contest for the mayoralty was separate from the race to be a councilor. I see that our new mayor, Peri Zee, got 5479 votes. In the separate race, twelve candidates for council got more votes than Peri Zee got (and the top ten of them join the Mayor in forming the Council).

Candidates who stood for both the mayoralty and the council, all got onto the council. The two men who were standing for the mayoralty were not also standing to be councilors, so Dr Wayne Guppy and Blair Griffiths are now taking a break from council service.

We live in interesting times!
Yours in the work for a better world,

A “thank you” to Nigel Mander for sending this letter to The Upper Hutt Connection.

21/10/25