By-election now likely in Sth Ward

Press, 20 March 1982, Page 6

By-election now likely in Sth Ward

A by-election in the South Ward to fill the vacancy on the Christchurch City council has been scheduled for May 8 and will probably draw only two main contenders. A petition, with 1322 signatures, calling for 'a by-elec- • tion would be filed before 5 pirn, today at the council offices, said the intending indpendent candidate, Mr R. R. Bach, yesterday. . Mr Bach said that the petition had lacked only five Of the required 1176 signature early yesterday afternoon and since then another 100 signatures had been received. “We have definitely got the required amount of signatures to force a byelection” he said. Mr Bach is the head of the English department at HUI- - High School. At the last parliamentary election he was a Social Credit candidate but will stand as an Independent in the Council by-election. The other main candidate is expected to be Mr A. G. James, a solicitor for the Maori Affairs Department, who was a Labour Party candidate in the last local body elections. Mr James was the Ward’s highest polling unsuccessful and has been appointed by ' the council to fill the vacancy created by the death

last year of Sir Robert Macfarlane. ' ; That appointment would have been confirmed on March 29. The Citizens Association has said it will not field a candidate for the by-election. Labour councillors said they wanted to appoint a replacement so'- the ratepayers would • not have to meet the cost of a by-elec-tion. But Mr Bach said that petition canvassers had found very few residents who were concerned about the cost of the by-election. Of the 104 residents in the Labour stronghold along . Halswell Road and Henderson Road, only two residents had refused to sign the petition because of the by-elec-tion cost. The rest had signed, he said. “A lot of people felt that Labour had let the ward down and.should have picked somebody who lived in the area or at least someone who was known to the residents.” said Mr Bach. “People also feel that the ward hasn’t been getting the attention it might have and isn’t being represented adequately,” he said. The petition had been organised because people had the democratic right to choose somebody to represent their area, particularly

as the remaining term was two years rather than a couple of months, he said. The fact that Mr James had been the highest polling unsuccessful candidate in 1980 was irrelevant because he had been simply one more name on the Labour Partv ticket. The returning officer (Mr W. R. Davies) said that council staff would spend next week checking that' the people who signed-the peti- ■■ tion had residential or rate- - payer qualifications. If the petition was in order, nominations would be called for on March 22 and closed at noon on March 26. May 8 had been, fixed as the earliest possible by-elec-tion date to comply with the Local Elections and Polls Act. Early voting days would be May 6 and 7. There were 23.514 eligible voters registered in the ward for the 1980 local body elections and the roll would probably remain the same for the by-election, said Mr Davies. ...; Voter turnout in the last council ■ by-election in 1975 when Cr Vicki Buck was elected to fill the Pegasus Ward vacancy caused by the death of Cr W. Massey, had been slightly less than 31 per cent, he said. The turnout for the last local body elections had been about '46 per cent.: