The 2025 Rotorua Lakes Council election was a local election held from 9 September to 11 October in the Rotorua Lakes District of New Zealand, as part of that year's territorial authority elections and other local elections held nation-wide.
Voters elected the mayor of Rotorua and 10 district councillors for the 2025âÂÂ2028 term of the Rotorua Lakes Council. Postal voting and the first-past-the-post voting system were used.
Incumbent mayor Tania Tapsell was re-elected to a second term in a landslide.
The council introduced a MÃÂori 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 MÃÂori ward.
Voters in the district elected the mayor of Rotorua, 10 councillors from across 3 wards and members of the Rotorua Lakes and Rotorua Rural community boards. They also elected members of the Bay of Plenty Regional Council and members of the Waikato Regional Council
Te Ipu Wai Taketake MÃÂori ward returned three councillors to the district council.
Te Ipu Wai Auraki general ward returned six councillors to the district council.
The Rotorua Rural ward returned one councillor to the district council.
As the only candidate, Barker was elected unopposed.
Overall turnout was 43.27%, with 21,796 voting papers returned, down from 47.9% in the 2022 election and short of the council's goal of at least 50% turnout. Rotorua ranked 51st for turnout out of the 66 district and city councils taking part in these elections.
With final results, the following candidates were declared elected:
Incumbent mayor Tania Tapsell was re-elected to a second term in a landslide.