List of by-elections to the Auckland City Council
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
By-elections to the Auckland City Council occur to fill vacant seats in the City Council. The death, resignation, bankruptcy or expulsion of a sitting Councillor can cause a by-election to occur.
Local by-elections usually had a lower turnout compared to full local body elections. A notorious example occurred in August 1961 when a vacancy triggered the second by-election in under a year which had a turnout of only 3.65% of voters, prompting Mayor Dove-Myer Robinson to label the light turnout "...absolutely disgraceful. By failing to exercise their democratic right the public is just asking Parliament to take away from them the right to vote".[1] By-elections on the city council were on occasion deferred if a substantial majority of the council agreed to fill the vacancy by appointment, resulting in the highest polling unsuccessful candidate at the previous election being appointed to the council unless there is a public demand for a poll to be held (known as extraordinary vacancies). This arrangement has happened several times such as in 1940 when Charles Bailey resigned his seat which was taken by Harry Butcher and March 1953 when Arthur Bailey died and his seat was taken by Bob Beechey.[2]
Two future Mayors of Auckland (John Allum and Dove-Myer Robinson) entered the council via by-elections in 1920 and 1952 respectively.
List of by-elections
Between 1903 and 1986 municipal elections in Auckland were conducted at-large. Between 1986 and 2010 municipal elections in Auckland were held via a Wards system of local electoral districts.[3] The following is a list of by-elections held to fill vacancies on the Auckland City Council:
Key
| Independent | Labour | Citizens & Ratepayers | United Independents | Civic Reform | Alliance |
| Ward | Date | Incumbent | Cause | Winner | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| At-large | 2 April 1908 | Robert Stopford | Resignation | John Patterson | ||
| At-large | 14 October 1909 | Moncrieff Murray McCallum | Resignation | Ralph Thomas Michaels | ||
| At-large | 18 May 1910 | Lemuel Bagnall | Resignation | Henry Shaw | ||
| At-large | 2 September 1910 | Herbert Smeeton | Resignation | Jonathan Trevethick | ||
| At-large | 18 November 1920 | Ernest Davis | Resignation | John Allum | ||
| Andrew Entrican | George Hutchison | |||||
| At-large | 22 December 1921 | Patrick Nerheny | Death | George Davis | ||
| At-large | 28 April 1922 | Harold Dennett Heather | Death | Alfred Lawry | ||
| Peter Mitchell Mackay | Samuel Crookes | |||||
| At-large | 25 October 1922 | Horatio Bagnall | Death | Christopher Furness | ||
| At-large | 7 November 1928 | Frederick Brinsden | Death | Tom Bloodworth | ||
| At-large | 27 May 1936 | John William Yarnall | Death | Jim Purtell | ||
| At-large | 6 July 1938 | George Richardson | Death | Charles Bailey | ||
| At-large | 5 April 1952 | Howard Hunter | Expulsion | Dove-Myer Robinson | ||
| At-large | 16 October 1954 | Fred Ambler | Expulsion | Fred Ambler | ||
| Bruce Barnett | Resignation | Val Chapman | ||||
| At-large | 14 December 1957 | Keith Buttle | Resignation | Wilfred Fortune | ||
| At-large | 4 October 1958 | Howard Hunter | Death | Charlie Passmore | ||
| At-large | 4 February 1961 | James Neil Bradley | Death | Val Chapman | ||
| At-large | 26 August 1961 | Mary Dreaver | Death | Howard Jeffreys | ||
| At-large | 20 April 1963 | Tom Pearce | Expulsion | Tom Pearce | ||
| Fred de Malmanche | Resignation | William Grant-Mackie | ||||
| At-large | 10 February 1979 | Bill Barrett | Death | Richard Northey | ||
| Avondale | 5 December 1987 | Barry Donovan | Death | Brian Maude | ||
| Central | 12 November 1988 | Harold Goodman | Death | Sue Corbett | ||
| Maungakiekie | 4 May 1991 | Grahame Thorne | Resignation | Ken Graham | ||
| Hauraki Gulf Islands | 28 May 1994 | Sandra Lee | Resignation | Gordon Hodson | ||
| Avondale-Roskill | 11 November 2000 | Phil Raffills | Death | Noelene Raffills | ||
| Avondale-Roskill | 9 April 2008 | Linda Leighton | Death | John Lister | ||
