1989 Christchurch mayoral election

The 1989 Christchurch mayoral election was part of the New Zealand local elections held that same year. In 1989, election were held for the Mayor of Christchurch plus other local government positions. The polling was conducted using the standard first-past-the-post voting method.

1989 Christchurch mayoral election

← 1986 14 October 1989 1992 →
Turnout121,295 (60.37%)
 
Candidate Vicki Buck Morgan Fahey Margaret Murray
Party Independent United Citizens Christchurch Action
Popular vote 63,025 30,662 25,387
Percentage 51.96 25.27 20.92

Mayor before election

Hamish Hay

Elected mayor

Vicki Buck

Councillors

All 24 seats on the City Council
13 seats needed for a majority
Party Leader Vote % Seats +/–
United Citizens Dennis Rich 30.84 7 −3
Labour Alex Clark 21.80 7 −2
Christchurch Action Margaret Murray 26.29 6 New
Independents for Papanui ward Des King & Gordon Freeman 4.54 2 New
Independent N/A 15.81 2 +2
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Results by ward

Background

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Sitting Mayor Hamish Hay retired and was succeeded by Labour Party councillor Vicki Buck who became Christchurch's first female mayor.[1]

There was deadlock on the city council with a four-way split in its membership. The Labour Party won a plurality of seats with eight seats, the United Citizens won seven, the new Christchurch Action ticket with six seats and the remaining three seats won by independent candidates. Prior to the election there was a schism on the right wing Citizens' Association resulting in two conservative tickets running against each other.[2] Christchurch Action was set up, comprising former councillors from districts that merged with the city as part of the 1989 local government reforms.[3]

Results

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The following table gives the election results:

1989 Christchurch mayoral election[1][4]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Independent Vicki Buck 63,025 51.96
United Citizens Morgan Fahey 30,662 25.27
Christchurch Action Margaret Murray 25,387 20.92
McGillicuddy Serious Craig Young 882 0.72
Economic Euthenics Tubby Hansen 402 0.33 −1.72
Informal votes 937 0.77 −0.62
Majority 32,363 26.68
Turnout 121,295 60.37

Ward results

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As part of the 1989 local government Reforms the amount of local government wards increased from 5 to 12 with each ward electing 2 members, as opposed to the 4 (or 3 in the case of the west ward) that wards previously elected. The size of the council also increased from 19 to 24.

The Christchurch Action team was founded on 13 August by Margaret Murray, its goals were based on improving city services, additional police, and improving efficiency of the council.[5]

There were changes in political affiliations during the council term. Carole Evans, councillor for the West Ward who ran under the Citizens' team in 1986 ran as an independent. Two sitting councillors from the abolished Waimairi district council, Gordon Freeman and Des King, stood under the Independents for Papanui ward team. Phillip Carter, who was the son of councillor and deputy mayor Maurice Carter ran for the Action team as opposed to his fathers affiliation of Citizens.

Burwood ward (2)[6][7][8]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Independent Carole Evans* 4,461 23.43
Independent Mike Stevens 3,183 16.72
Labour Arthur Adcock 3,181 16.71
Labour Alister George James* 2,540 13.34
Citizens' Judith Anne Bruce 1,767 9.28
Citizens' Colin Harry Russel 1,442 7.58
Action Roger Maaka 1,363 7.16
Action Butler Graham 1,099 5.77
Informal votes 432
Turnout 19,468
Fendalton ward (2)[6][8]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Citizens' Ron Wright* 4,474 20.99
Action Phillip Carter* 4,446 20.86
Action Barbara Stewart 4,162 19.52
Citizens' Bea Stokes 4,075 19.12
Independent Alan Falloon 2,832 13.28
Independent Daniel Visser 1,329 6.23
Informal votes 642
Turnout 21,960
Ferrymead ward (2)[6][8]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Citizens' David Cox* 4,480 22.89
Labour Charles Manning* 3,620 18.50
Citizens' Clive Cotton* 3,417 17.46
Labour Carl Horn 2,859 14.61
Action Jamie Tulloch 1,853 9.47
Independent Sara (Sadie) Scott 1,769 9.04
Action Roy Hughes 1,571 8.03
Informal votes 370
Turnout 19,939
Hagley ward (2)[6][8]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Linda Constable* 3,969 29.65
Labour Denis O'Rourke 3,060 22.86
Citizens' Noel Wesney 1,929 14.41
Citizens' Rae L. Mills 1,743 13.02
Action Don Donnithorne 1,376 10.28
Action Phillip Donnelly 1,311 9.79
Informal votes 343
Turnout 13,731
Heathcote ward (2)[6][8]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Citizens' Rex Arbuckle* 3,741 19.00
Action Oscar Alpers 3,365 17.09
Independent Ann Lewis 2,816 14.30
Citizens Gil Laurenson 2,346 11.91
Action Raywyn Ramage 2,063 10.48
Labour Richard Budd 1,869 9.49
Labour Peter McGrail 1,754 8.91
Independent David Drayton 1,736 8.82
Informal votes "0"
Turnout 19,690
Papanui ward (2)[6][8]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Papanui Independent Gordon Freeman 5,181 25.23
Papanui Independent Des G. King 4,828 23.51
Action Bruce McFadden 4,073 19.83
Action Gil Simpson 2,755 13.41
Citizens' Gail M. McIntosh 1,921 9.35
Citizens' Kate Fraser 1,779 8.66
Informal votes 188
Turnout 20,725
Pegasus ward (2)[6][8]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour David Close* 4,255 28.52
Labour Noala Massey* 4,244 24.07
Citizens' Bob Andrews 2,850 16.16
Citizens' Bill Morgan 2,021 11.46
Action Denise Ward 1,817 10.30
Action Christian Birch 1,299 7.37
Progression with pride David Nation 373 2.12
Informal votes 416
Turnout 18,049
Riccarton ward (2)[6][8]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Action David Buist 3,612 19.01
Action Derek Anderson 3,545 18.65
Citizens' Brian Harman 3,299 17.36
Independent Jim Adlam 3,153 16.59
Independent Peter Yarrel 3,012 15.82
Citizens' Mervyn N. Cooper 2,382 12.53
Informal votes 603
Turnout 19,606
Shirley ward (2)[6][8]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Citizens' Newton Dodge 3,955 22.55
Citizens' Dennis Rich* 3,527 20.11
Labour Linda Purves 2,816 16.06
Labour Hinemoa Conner 2,120 12.09
Independent Phillip Norman 1,996 11.38
Action Sarah Armstrong 1,647 9.39
Action Ian Shrimpton 1,478 8.43
Informal votes 373
Turnout 17,912
Spreydon ward (2)[6][8]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Citizens' Morgan Fahey* 4,268 24.89
Labour Alex Clark* 3,666 21.38
Labour Ruby Fowler* 3,153 18.38
Citizens' Pearl Quigley 2,593 15.12
Action Kevin Trerise 1,164 6.79
Action Graham Catley 1,074 6.26
Progressive Independent Peter Yearbury 1,055 6.15
Economic Euthenics Tubby Hansen 177 1.03
Informal votes 103
Turnout 17,253
Waimairi ward (2)[6][8]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Action Pat Harrow 4,953 23.18
Action John Hanafin 4,800 22.46
Independent Fred Blogg 3,485 16.31
Citizens' Ralph W. Skjellerup 2,901 13.57
Citizens' Honor M. Bonisch 2,679 12.54
Town & Country Angus Mackenzie 1,049 4.91
Independent Paul Tefler 1,030 4.82
Independent Te Waikanau Taylor 475 2.22
Informal votes 472
Turnout 21,844
Spreydon ward (2)[6][8]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Citizens' Mary I. Corbett 2,832 17.69
Labour Ishwar Ganda 2,457 15.35
Independent Barry Anderson 2,322 14.51
Labour Rod Falconer 1,729 10.80
Action Dennis J. Cunningham 1,595 9.97
Citzens' John Butler 1,595 9.97
Action John Dunnett 1,549 9.68
Independent Norman Davey 1,034 6.46
Independent Leslie Fibbens 903 5.64
Informal votes 372
Turnout 16,378

Aftermath

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Buck was elected the first ever female mayor of Christchurch and 4 women were elected to the council. Margaret Murray and Morgan Fahey both conceded in a friendly manner in person on the night. Morgan Fahey, her nearest opponent, became the Deputy mayor.

Despite losing the Mayoralty, Action performed very well and Citzens' lost its overall majority on council. There was accusations that Action split the centre-right vote and lead to no overall control on council. Because of the Citzens' animosity towards the action team Labour and Citzens' formed an alliance on the council which resulted in Action missing out on a fair share of committee chairmanships.[6][9]

Dennis Rich retained his position as team leader after the election but Labour's team leader Alex Clark was replaced by Pegasus councillor David Close after Clark expressed a preference to focus on his regional council seat. Clark was also unable to secure a committee chairmanship, even in transport despite his advocacy for a city owned bus company.[9]

Although Labour candidate Arthur Adcock had won on election night by a margin of 19 votes, independent Mike Stevens refused to concede and sought multiple rounds of recounts, eventually resulting in Adcock losing his seat to Stevens.[7] This meant Labour's election night plurality of seats was also lost. There was also legal action in the Papanui ward over the nature of election material.[10]

Mayor Buck initially tried to get councillors to sit in alphabetical order next to each other, however, councillors ended up moving their own name plates around to sit in party/team blocs.[11]

References

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  1. ^ a b Forrester, Kay (16 October 1989). "Chch elects first woman as Mayor". The Press. p. 1.
  2. ^ Forrester, Kay (16 October 1989). "Split council still to set battle lines". The Press. p. 1.
  3. ^ Scanlon, Sean; Crean, Mike (24 April 2004). "Cutting their ties; Two parties in control". The Press. p. D11.
  4. ^ "Mayoralty figures". The Press. 16 October 1989. p. 3.
  5. ^ "Murray highlights Goals link". The Press. 14 August 1989. p. 1. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Christchurch City Council". The Press. 16 October 1989. p. 4. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  7. ^ a b "Public notices". The Press. 23 December 1989. p. 43. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "The Candidates". The Press. 16 October 1989. p. 41-48. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  9. ^ a b "Council alliance sews up top jobs". The Press. 7 November 1989. p. 1. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  10. ^ "Council seating, top jobs arranged". The Press. 8 November 1989. p. 7. Retrieved 13 June 2024.