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2025 Nelson City Council election

The 2025 Nelson City Council election was a local election held from 9 September to 11 October in Nelson, New Zealand, as part of that year's territorial authority elections and other local elections held nation-wide.

Voters elected the mayor of Nelson and 12 city councillors for the 2025–2028 term of the Nelson City Council. Postal voting and the single transferable voting system were used in two four-seat wards, an at-large three-seat contest and two single-winner contests (for mayor and Maori member).

Incumbent mayor Nick Smith won re-election to a second 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 keep the Māori ward.

Key dates

  • 4 July 2025: Nominations for candidates opened
  • 1 August 2025: Nominations for candidates closed at 12 pm
  • 9 September 2025: Voting documents were posted and voting opened
  • 11 October 2025: Voting closed at 12 pm and progress/preliminary results were published
  • 16–19 October 2025: Final results were declared.

Background

Positions up for election

Voters in the city elected the mayor of Nelson and 12 city councillors in 4 separate contests (three in wards and one at-large).

Campaign

List of candidates

Incumbents not seeking re-election

  • Matthew Benge, incumbent councillor
  • Rohan O'Neill-Stevens, deputy mayor since 2022 and councillor since 2019
  • Rachel Sanson, incumbent councillor

Mayor

Councillors

Whakatū Māori ward

Whakatū Māori ward returned one councillor to the city council.

Central ward

The Central ward returned four councillors to the city council.

Stoke-Tāhunanui ward

The Stoke-Tāhunanui ward returned four councillors to the city council.

At-large ward

Three councillors were elected at-large to the city council.

Results

Overall turnout for the election was 48.14%, with 18,789 voting papers returned.

With the final results, the following candidates were declared elected:

Mayor

Incumbent mayor Nick Smith won re-election to a second-term.

Council

At-large ward

Central general ward

Stoke-Tāhunanui general ward

Whakatu Māori ward

Māori ward poll

See also

Notes

References