Standing for Council 2025

Candidate Information

A candidate standing for a district or regional council must be:

a New Zealand citizen; and
a parliamentary elector (anywhere in New Zealand).

The following restrictions apply for candidates for a district council and regional council:

A candidate may stand for election for mayor and district council within the same territorial authority district, but may not also stand for election to a regional council of which the territorial authority is part, i.e. a candidate may stand for either the district council or the regional council but not both.
A candidate may not stand for more than one ward or more than one constituency of the same local authority.
Where a territorial authority has a mixed at large and wards system of representation, a candidate may not stand for councillor both in a ward and at large for that territorial authority (section 57B LEA).
A candidate cannot be a person concerned or interested in contracts over $25,000 with the local authority. This restriction is waived if prior approval is obtained from the Office of the Auditor-General.
Any person who wishes to be a candidate while subject to a Court Order under section 31 if the Protection of Personal and Property Rights Act 1988 should take legal advice.
An employee of a local authority who is elected as mayor or councillor of that local authority must resign as an employee before taking up his/her position as an elected member. The rules of an individual local authority may require an employee to take leave of absence for campaigning purposes prior to the election.

Confirmed Candidates

Please click the link below to access the portal for candidate nominations received.

The page will be updated as nominations are ‘published’.

Nominations portal

Candidate Handbook

Click here (PDF 4.32 MB) to download and view the Candidate Handbook

Candidate Nomination Form - Mayor (PDF 154 KB)

Candidate Nomination Form - Councillor (PDF 155 KB)

Please note, nomination forms will need to be delivered to the Customer Services and Visitor Hub at 160 Rora Street, Te Kūiti

Click here (PDF 99 KB) to download the Electoral Expenses and Donations Form

Waitomo District Council Signage Rules (PDF 124 KB) during the local elections

NZTA Elections Signage Guidelines (PDF 175 KB)

Positions in this election

Waitomo District Council

(a) Election of the Mayor

(b) Election of six (6) Councillors as follows:

Te Kūiti Ward	three (3) Councillors
Waitomo Rural Ward	three (3) Councillors

Waikato Regional Council – (WRC)

Election of two (2) Councillors to represent the Waipa-King Country constituency.

There will be a separate candidate handbook for the WRC election available from the Waikato Regional Council on free phone 0800 800 401.

Important Documents

It is an exciting time to be involved in Local Government with much change coming in the 2025-2028 Triennium. The transition to the new Waters regime will create much additional work. This will include, but not be limited to, preparing an amendment to Council’s 2024-2034 Long Term Plan to provide for the waters transition, revision of all Council policies and bylaws which relate to waters. This will all be over and above the scheduled “business as usual” work programme and will mean additional reading and possibly additional workshops and meetings for elected members.

If you are considering standing for Council, if would help if you became familiar with these plans and reports

Long Term Plan 2024-2034 (PDF 10.82 MB)

Other Plans and Strategies

Calendar of Elected Member Commitments (PDF 186 KB)

Candidate Information Evening

View the recording of the Candidate Information Evening that was held on 10 July.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu1e0wgz_js

Candidate Powerpoint Presentation (PDF 2.94 MB)

DISCLAIMER:

Council resources must not be used for candidate electioneering/campaigning purposes, Council’s social media pages must remain non-political. Council will use social media to promote and encourage people to STAND for election, and to promote and encourage people to VOTE.

Any obvious electioneering/campaigning OR comments that can be taken as electioneering/campaigning will be removed and the writer blocked for the duration of the election period. All political comments OR comments that can be perceived as political either for or against any candidate and/or potential candidate will be deleted, and the writer blocked for the duration of the elections period if commenting continues.

Please do not also "tag" any of Council's social media pages into any posts that relate to a campaign or support of a preferred candidate.

Sharing our Election STAND and VOTE promotional posts to your networks and community pages is welcomed.

The following list of social media pages are either maintained and monitored by Waitomo District Council, or linked to Council by association.

https://www.facebook.com/waitomodistrict/

https://www.facebook.com/WaitomoDistrict.animalcontrol

https://www.facebook.com/WaitomoDistrictLibrary

https://www.facebook.com/TeKuitiNZ

https://www.facebook.com/WaitomoDistrictPlanReview

https://www.facebook.com/tekuitipool

https://www.facebook.com/inframaxconstructionltd

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064267683555 (John Robertson – Mayor of Waitomo)

Instagram.com/waitomo_nz