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2025 Gisborne District Council election

The 2025 Gisborne District Council election was a local election held from 9 September to 11 October in the Gisborne District of New Zealand as part of that year's nation-wide local elections. Voters elected the mayor of Gisborne and 13 district councillors for the 2025–2028 term of the Gisborne District Council. Postal voting and the single transferable voting system were used.

Incumbent mayor Rehette Stoltz was re-elected to a third-term.

The council introduced a Māori ward at the 2022 election. In a referendum on its future held at this election, as part of a nation-wide series of referendums, voters elected to retain the Māori ward.

Key dates

  • 4 July 2025: Nominations for candidates opens.
  • 1 August 2025: Nominations for candidates close at 12 noon.
  • 922 September 2025: Voting documents delivered to enrolled voters and voting opens.
  • 11 October 2025: Voting closes at 12 noon. Progress/preliminary results published
  • 1317 October 2025: Official count and final results announced.
  • 17 October 2025: Final results declared by public notice.

Background

Positions up for election

Voters in the district elected the mayor of Gisborne and 13 district councillors in 2 wards.

Campaign

List of candidates

Incumbents not seeking re-election

  • Ani Pahuru-Huriwai, councillor for the Māori ward since 2022
  • Tony Robinson, councillor for the general ward, resigned to take up the position of key account manager for the council
  • Josh Wharehinga, deputy mayor and councillor since 2014

Mayor

Councillors

Tairāwhiti Māori ward

Tairāwhiti Māori ward returned five councillors to the district council.

Tairāwhiti General ward

The Tairāwhiti General ward returned eight councillors to the district council.

Results

Overall turnout for the election was 48.1% (50.3% in the general ward, and 43.8% in the Māori ward), with 16,377 voting papers returned. This was up from a turnout of 43.4% in the 2022 election, but down from a turnout of 50.1% in the 2019 election. Gisborne's turnout was 8.7% higher than the national average for this years elections.

Mayoral

class="wikitable" style="text-align:right" +2025 Gisborne mayoral election ! colspan="2" style="width:130px" Affiliation ! style="width:17em" Candidate ! style="width:5em" Primary vote ! style="width:3.5em" % -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Rehette Stoltz 8,147 49.75 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Colin Alder 5,984 36.54 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Jono Samson 1,851 11.30 - ! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;font-weight:normal" Quota 7,991 48.79 - ! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;font-weight:normal" Informal 46 0.28 - ! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;font-weight:normal" Blank 349 2.13 - ! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;font-weight:normal" Turnout 16,377

- ! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;font-weight:normal" Registered

style="background:lightgrey;border-right:1px solid lightgrey" -

colspan="6" style="text-align:left;"Independent hold on 1st iteration - colspan="5" style="background:#eaecf0;text-align:left;padding-bottom:0px;padding-top:0px" incumbent }

Tairāwhiti general ward

class="wikitable" style="text-align:right" +Tairāwhiti general ward ! colspan="2" style="width:130px" Affiliation ! style="width:17em" Candidate ! style="width:5em" Primary vote ! style="width:3.5em" % ! colspan="2" style="width:5em" Iteration vote -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Colin Alder 2,682 23.87 ! #1 2,682 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Rob Telfer 931 8.28 ! #3 1,207 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Samuel Gibson 1,008 8.97 ! #10 1,230 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Jeremy Muir 943 8.39 ! #10 1,219 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Alexandra Boros 679 6.04 ! #17 1,211 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Debbie Gregory 636 5.66 ! #19 1,167 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Larry Foster 645 5.74 ! #21 1,175 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Teddy Thompson 516 4.59 ! #23 1,159 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Andy Cranston 512 4.56 ! #23 1,022 - style="background:" style="text-align:left" Independent Green style="text-align:left" Jordan Walker 382 3.40 ! #18 675 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Ian Allan 357 3.18 ! #16 550 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Grant Brown 284 2.53 ! #14 492 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Jono Samson 265 2.36 ! #11 386 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Marchel Campbell 254 2.26 ! #9 342 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Ian Procter 273 2.43 ! #8 326 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Darin Brown 235 2.09 ! #6 287 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Jodie Curtis 139 1.24 ! #4 160 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Blake Webb 109 0.97 ! #3 127 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Gazza McKenzie 43 0.38 ! #2 51 - ! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;font-weight:normal" Quota 1,210 10.77 ! #23 1,142 - ! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;font-weight:normal" Informal 248 2.21 rowspan="4" colspan="2" style="background:lightgrey" - ! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;font-weight:normal" Blank 97 0.86 - ! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;font-weight:normal" Turnout 11,238

- ! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;font-weight:normal" Registered

style="background:lightgrey;border-right:1px solid lightgrey" -

colspan="6" style="text-align:left;"Independent hold on 1st iteration -

colspan="6" style="text-align:left;"Independent hold on 3rd iteration -

colspan="6" style="text-align:left;"Independent gain from Independent on 10th iteration -

colspan="6" style="text-align:left;"Independent gain from Independent on 10th iteration -

colspan="6" style="text-align:left;"Independent gain from Independent on 17th iteration -

colspan="6" style="text-align:left;"Independent hold on 19th iteration -

colspan="6" style="text-align:left;"Independent hold on 21st iteration -

colspan="6" style="text-align:left;"Independent hold on 23rd iteration - colspan="7" style="background:#eaecf0;text-align:left;padding-bottom:0px;padding-top:0px" incumbent }

Tairāwhiti Māori ward

class="wikitable" style="text-align:right" +Tairāwhiti Māori ward ! colspan="2" style="width:130px" Affiliation ! style="width:17em" Candidate ! style="width:5em" Primary vote ! style="width:3.5em" % ! colspan="2" style="width:5em" Iteration vote -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Aubrey Ria 1,163 22.63 ! #1 1,163 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Rhonda Tibble 769 14.96 ! #3 844 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Rawinia Parata 655 12.75 ! #7 836 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Nick Tupara 583 11.34 ! #12 872 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Anne Huriwai 466 9.07 ! #16 803 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Chris Haenga 402 7.82 ! #16 722 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Elizabeth Kerekere 365 7.10 ! #11 515 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Raawiri Gilgen 182 3.54 ! #7 217 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Jackie Akuhata-Brown 159 3.09 ! #6 198 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Mateawa Keelan 150 2.92 ! #4 159 -

style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Kat Taylor 135 2.63 ! #2 146 - ! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;font-weight:normal" Quota 838 16.31 ! #16 790 - ! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;font-weight:normal" Informal 81 1.58 colspan="2" rowspan="4" style="background:lightgrey" - ! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;font-weight:normal" Blank 29 0.56 - ! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;font-weight:normal" Turnout 5,139

- ! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;font-weight:normal" Registered

style="background:lightgrey;border-right:1px solid lightgrey" -

colspan="6" style="text-align:left;"Independent hold on 1st iteration -

colspan="6" style="text-align:left;"Independent hold on 3rd iteration -

colspan="6" style="text-align:left;"Independent hold on 7th iteration -

colspan="6" style="text-align:left;"Independent hold on 12th iteration -

colspan="6" style="text-align:left;"Independent gain from Independent on 16th iteration - colspan="7" style="background:#eaecf0;text-align:left;padding-bottom:0px;padding-top:0px" incumbent }

Māori ward referendum

Notes

References