‘Don’t leave it too late’ to stand

With just one week until nominations close, South Canterbury electoral officers have warned of the risk of leaving it to the last minute to nominate a candidate for the 2022 local body elections.

As at 5pm yesterday, there had been 15 nominations for the 26 positions available on the Timaru, Waimate and Mackenzie district councils.

Waimate District electoral officer Warwick Lampp said while he put a lack of early nominations down to human nature – he said there was a risk in leaving it to the deadline which is noon next

Friday.

‘‘Many candidates have left it until the last minute and found their nominator or seconder is not on the electoral roll, and don’t have time to fix it,’’ Lampp said.

Mackenzie District and Environment Canterbury electoral officer Anthony Morton said he was expecting a busy final week.

‘‘Nominations for community board positions are still light in a number of areas and intending candidates are encouraged to get their nomination forms in as soon as possible next week to ensure they can be processed in time,’’ Morton said.

‘‘Following the close of nominations, electionz.com electoral officers will typically have to reject three or four candidate nominations nationally.

‘‘They usually arise where the candidate has submitted a nomination late in the nomination period which is incomplete or has incorrect details which invalidates the nomination as there is not enough time for the candidate to then correct that.’’

Despite being four candidates short of the number required, Timaru District electoral officer Mark Low expects there to be sufficient nominations to fill the positions available by the end of next week.

‘‘[We are] still very short in the community board nominations, so encourage people to put their hands up for these roles.’’

Low said there has not been an incident in Timaru where a candidate was rejected from the local body elections but ‘‘there is a first time for everything’’.

‘‘The message is ‘get your nominations in early, so we can ensure they are correct’. If there is insufficient time to do this before 12 noon on August 12, then unfortunately people will miss out.’’

Low’s advice for candidates is ‘‘don’t leave it too late’’.

‘‘This is the nomination period and the first step is to be nominated to be part of local democracy.’’

In the Timaru District, Gavin Oliver has been nominated for the Geraldine ward, Michelle Pye and Scott Shannon have been nominated for the Pleasant

Point-Temuka ward, Allan Booth, Peter Bennett, Stacey Scott, Shane Wilson and Troy Titheridge have been nominated for the Timaru ward.

Shannon has also been nominated for the Temuka Community Board and Nicky Donkers has been nominated for the Geraldine Licensing Trust.

In the Mackenzie District, Robin McCarthy has been nominated for the mayoralty, Murray Cox for the Opuha ward and Matt Murphy has been nominated for the Tekapo ward.

In the Waimate District, Craig Rowley has been nominated for mayor, Colin Pankhurst for the HakatarameaWaihaorunga ward, Tom O’Connor for the Pareora-Otaio-Makikihi ward and John Begg for the Waimate ward.