Critical shortage of candidates for QLDC, CODC and ORC

Will a last minute rush fill the gaps?

With only 10 days to go before local body candidate nominations close there's a potentially alarming lack of candidates putting their names forward for the Otago Regional Council, Central Otago District Council and Queenstown Lakes District Council.

There's also some interesting contests, and some noteworthy absences from the nomination lists. QLDC mayor Glyn Lewers has not yet filed his formal notice to stand again for the Mayoralty and Mark Quinn, founder of Challenging Councils NZ, is standing for the CODC mayoralty against recent incumbent Tamah Alley.

For the Otago Regional Council there are zero official nominations at this stage (July 19) for the newly increased four Dunstan ward seats that cover Wānaka, Queenstown and Cromwell.

Zero nominations for the QLDC Wānaka-Upper Clutha Ward councillor roles have been lodged and zero nominations for the Cromwell ward of the CODC have been lodged as at July 19.

Here are the nominations below so far for the QLDC, CODC and ORC.

Crux will be ramping up our local body election coverage over the coming weeks as campaigning gets under way.

All candidates are welcome to send photos (1 - 3 high res 16:9 landscape with wide margins) and a candidate statement to editor@crux.org.nz