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

14 October 1989
Turnout	121,295 (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

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

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. Christchurch Action was set up, comprising former councillors from districts that merged with the city as part of the 1989 local government reforms.

Results

The following table gives the election results:

1989 Christchurch mayoral election

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

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.

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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

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.

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.

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. 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.

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.