Electoral changes
The Local Government Commission has announced its decision that existing representation arrangements for Bay of Plenty Regional Council will apply for the 2019 local authority elections.
The commission has upheld the decision of Bay of Plenty Regional Council that the existing Rotorua and Eastern Bay of Plenty constituencies will be retained with their current representation despite these constituencies not complying with the statutory fair representation requirement. This requirement is for the ratio of population to councillors for each constituency to be within +/-10 per cent of the ratio for the region as a whole.
The commission has agreed with the council that this noncompliance is necessary to provide effective representation for the constituencies concerned given the size and nature of those constituencies.
The decision means that for the 2019 local authority elections, Bay of Plenty Regional Council will continue to comprise 14 councillors elected from four general and three Ma¯ ori constituencies as follows: Western Bay of Plenty constituency — 2 councillors, Tauranga constituency — 5 councillors, Rotorua constituency — 2 councillors, Eastern Bay of Plenty constituency — 2 councillors, Mauao constituency — 1 councillor, Okurei constituency — 1 councillor, Kohi constituency — 1 councillor.