Elections - Stand

If you want to stand as a candidate for election to a local authority or district health board, check that you qualify and are nominated. There are restrictions around the positions you can stand for on local authorities and district health boards.

How to Qualify as a Candidate

Community Boards & Local Authorities

To qualify as a candidate for election to a community board, city / district or regional council, you must be:

enrolled as a parliamentary elector anywhere in New Zealand; and
a New Zealand citizen.

Extent of the Capital and Coast District Health Board

District Health Board

To qualify as a candidate for election to a district health board, you must be:

enrolled as a parliamentary elector anywhere in New Zealand; and
a New Zealand citizen; and
not disqualified by either clause 17, Schedule 2 of the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000 or section 30(2)(a) to (f) of the Crown Entities Act 2004.

NZ Legislation website

Hutt Mana Charitable Trust

To qualify as a candidate for election to the Hutt Mana Charitable Trust, you must be:

a New Zealand citizen; and
a parliamentary elector living inside the Hutt Mana Charitable Trust district.

How to be Nominated

You can stand independently or under a party grouping or affiliation - similar to the process that political parties use in parliamentary elections.

However, you cannot nominate yourself as a candidate. You must be nominated by two people (nominators), both of whom need to sign your nomination form.

Nominators

Community Boards & Local Authorities

Nominators for candidates on city / district / regional councils, or for community boards must be on either the residential or ratepayer roll for the district or subdivision of the district (for example, ward, community board or constituency) in which the candidate is standing.

District Health Board

Nominators of district health board candidates must be registered residential electors in the district health board's area.

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Hutt Mana Charitable Trust

Nominators of Trust candidates must be registered residential electors in the Trust's area.

Restrictions on Candidates

Community Boards & Local Authorities

If you are a candidate for a city / district council, community board, and regional council, these restrictions apply:

You cannot stand for election to both the Wellington City Council (as Mayor, Councillor or Community Board member) and the Greater Wellington Regional Council.
You cannot stand for election to more than one ward or constituency of the same authority or for more than one subdivision of a community board.
You cannot have concerns or interests in contracts over $25,000 with the local authority. However, this may be waived if, before standing, you get approval from the Office of the Auditor-General.
If you are employed by a local authority and are elected as mayor or councillor of that local authority, you must resign as an employee before taking up the position as an elected member. However, this may not apply if you're employed by a territorial authority and are elected to a community board in that authority's district. The rules of an individual local authority may mean that an employee has to take leave of absence for campaigning purposes before the election.

District Health Board

If you are standing for a district health board, you can also stand for mayor, city / district council, community board or regional council but you will be subject to the restrictions outlined above.

You can only stand for one district health board.

More Information

The candidate handbook contains detailed information to help candidates during the electioneering period. A handbook for the next local authority election will be available in mid 2013.