Election advice available for Council candidates

As the date of the Marlborough District Council’s local body elections comes closer, more information for prospective candidates is now available.

“Strong democracy comes from people researching and voting for the people they want to represent them, and we’d really like to see a great turnout,” says Marlborough District Council operations manager Dean Heiford.

“Local government is easily accessible - you see every day the things that local government provides, whether you take your kids to the swimming pool or you go for a walk in the park, or you drive on the road, or you flush your toilet, or you put your rubbish out, and whether you like it or not, those are the services that council provides.

“If you want to change those services, or you want to see different things happen, then you need to get people onto the council that represent your views and ideas.”
With Marlborough having a unitary council across the region with the Blenheim, Wairau-Awatere and Marlborough Sounds wards, as well as the Marlborough Māori ward, who’s ongoing existence is up for referendum this October, Dean says being a councillor is “complex to say the least”.

“You’ve got the regional and territorial functions with council and committee meetings, and if you’re on the regional side of the organization, you can also be on planning hearings, resource consent hearings which are complex and can take up a lot of time on top of the public-facing element of the role.

“People that run for office do it for an element of pride in their community, and wanting to make positive change - you’re not going to earn a full-time wage as a councillor, so you’ve got to balance with your family, your business and everything else.

“Councillors need to work together for the better of betterment of Marlborough, so you have to be a good reader, willing to ask questions and get involved, but also make difficult decisions.”

As the October 11 voting deadline nears, Dean and his team must walk a fine line of promoting voting, while not promoting any candidates. And after Tuesday’s Candidate Information Meeting, Dean says those considering running should start thinking about it now. The election organising group legally must provide a clear and even playing field for voting, but there’s no big decisions made during the three months ahead of the election that could be impactful,” he says.

“The recording of the meeting will be made available online, and we’ll also have the candidate handbook available to access with a whole lot of information.

“Of course, election staff are available to answer any questions and I’m sure any sitting Councillors would be happy to discuss what it takes to run for council with potential candidates as well. This year’ focus has been making local voting easier, so we’re having big orange voting bins in each of Marlborough’s supermarkets to make voting as accessible as possible.

“People should have got the orange letter by now, but if you’re not on the electoral roll, you won’t get a voting document in the mail - but you can register on the day elections close on October 11.”