Wellington City Council Electoral Officer Ross Bly declared the final election results for Wellington City Council today.

"I am pleased to be able to finally declare final results and put an end to the waiting and uncertainty for candidates and the public.  The procedures used to produce these results have been approved by the Office of the Auditor-General and we have confidence in the integrity of the results.

Mr Bly went on to say that voter confidence in the electoral system is of paramount importance. "The Office of the Auditor-General has given us assurance that all votes have been processed effectively into the STV calculator.

"We are obviously unhappy with the events last week which saw a declaration of our final results delayed. We had hoped to declare the result on Wednesday 13 October.

However getting the result right was critical.  Mr Bly says that the Auditor-General's Office has now given him the assurance needed so he can declare the final result.  "In the process of checking the vote data we have re-run the data processing systems as a further check on the integrity of the enhanced procedures and controls."

Bruce Robertson, Assistant Auditor-General Local Government, says he has provided the Council with assurance that 'enhanced procedures and controls have operated to ensure that all validly cast votes have been processed effectively into the STV calculator.'

"We are confident that the enhanced procedures and controls put in place have been followed," says Mr Robertson.

Wellington City Council Chief Executive Garry Poole has ordered an independent review of the election which will look at all the issues, including the service provided by the organisations contracted by the Electoral Officer to process the votes.

The Council will also be contributing to any other Government or parliamentary reviews or inquiries.

Mr Robertson says the Office of the Auditor-General will now proceed to deal with the assurance requests from other Councils and District Health Boards.

There were no changes from Wellington City Council's preliminary result to the final result.

Mr Bly says that with the final results in voter turnout was 42%.  This compares to 48 percent in the 2001 elections, 49 percent in 1998 and 53 percent in 1995.

In total 786 special votes were validated and fed into the final results.  These included:

• Northern Ward – 35
• Onslow-Western Ward – 116
• Lambton Ward – 359
• Eastern Ward - 120
• Southern – 156

Mr Bly says although he is able to announce Wellington City Council results today there will be no District Health Board result until the Office of the Auditor-General has signed-off on Porirua City and Kapiti Coast District Councils' election processes.

Related Links:

• 2004 Elections - Final Results

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