Competition hot for local body positions

Press, 2 September 1989, Page 3

Competition hot for local body positions

By

KAY FORRESTER

Canterbury’s new-look local government has drawn huge interest for October’s local body elections.

So much so in Christchurch City that staff struggled yesterday to cope with a rush of lastminute nominations. The returning officer, Mr Max Robertson, could not give final numbers until the early evening. The tally was five candidates for the mayoralty, 84 for the council, and 142 for the community boards. Of the five mayoralty starters, the three principal candidates are Ms Vicki Buck (Positive Choice), Mrs Margaret Murray (Christchurch Action) and. .. Dr Morgan Fahey (United Citizens).

The veteran campaigner, Mr Michael Hansen, is having his seventh tilt at the mayoral chair. He is standing under his usual Economic Euthenics banner. The other candidate is the McGillicuddy Serious Party’s Mr Craig Young. Independents are contesting 10 of the 12 council wards, tossing their names in the hat with candidates from the three political groupings, United Citizens, Christchurch Actiqn (] and Canterbury Labour. With only two councillors to be elected from each ward the competi-

tion is hot. Publicity earlier this week prompted a flood of last-minute nominations for the community boards. When the noon deadline passed yesterday Mr Robertson had 142 nominations for the 36 community board places. Fears that there might be no election for some boards were swept aside by the people who queued for much of yesterday morning to get their names on the ballot paper. Most of the community board candidates are independents with - a

smattering of Christchurch Action and some United Citizens candidates. Interest is high, too, in the city for seats on the Canterbury Regional Council and Canterbury Area Health Board. Fortyone people are contesting the 10 city seats on the regional council and 46 the six city seats on the health board.

Seventy-one candidates are in the hunt for 17 regional council places; 66 for 11 area health board seats.

Interest in other parts of the South Island is also

high, with more than 1100 candidates north of the Waitaki River seeking a place on local bodies or health boards. The Mackenzie District’s first mayor has been elected unopposed. He is the Mackenzie county chairman, Mr Bruce Scott. Three or four of the smaller wards in the district councils will have no elections, but generally the number of candidates offering themselves for election have exceeded the highest hopes of the Government for participatory democracy.