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

Click here (PDF 124 KB) to read the rules about signage during the local elections

Candidate Information Evening

If you've ever thought about standing for local government, now's your chance to find out how.

Join us on 10 July in Te Kūiti for our candidate information evening, where you’ll learn what it takes to represent your community.

Items to be covered will include how the council is structured, the role and responsibilities of elected representatives, the skills required, anticipated time commitments and meeting schedules and an overview of the nomination and election processes.

Thursday 10 July

7pm

Council Chambers, 15 Queen Street, Te Kūiti

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

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

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