• Campaign aims to increase voter turnout at October's local authority elections

Campaign aims to increase voter turnout at October's local authority elections

Local Government NZ has launched a campaign to encourage more people to get involved in the Local Authority Elections this October.

Local Authority Election turnout has been declining in many areas of New Zealand since the 1980s.

LGNZ’s ten-month #Vote2019NZ campaign, running until the October 12 polling date, aims to lift nationwide voter turnout in local elections and increase people’s engagement with their local council.

The campaign also encourages citizens with strong leadership qualities and a passion for their community to consider standing as candidates themselves.

Nominations in local body elections throughout the country open on July 19 and close at noon on Friday August 16.

Central Hawke’s Bay District Council said yesterday work was already well underway to prepare for its elections.

The council will hold a candidate information evening later this year for those considering standing for election.

To stand you must be a New Zealand citizen over the age of 18, be enrolled on the parliamentary electoral roll and have lived in your current address (at the time of nomination) for at least one month.

At a meeting last week, CHB District Council confirmed that for the first time, the order of candidate names in the 2019 voting documents will appear in random order.

For the 2016 elections, each voting paper had been ordered by alphabetical order of candidates’ surnames.

 

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