No matter which Electoral Roll you’re on or where in Porirua city you live, you can vote for who you want to be the city’s Mayor and represent you.
Depending on which ward you’re in (Parirua Māori, Pāuatahanui General, or Onepoto General Ward), you’ll have a selection of candidates running for a Councillor position in that ward.
Depending on which ward you’re in (Te Upoko o te Ika a Māui Māori or Porirua-Tawa constituency), you’ll have a selection of candidates running for a Councillor position in that constituency.
This year, there will be additional questions asking voters whether they want to keep or remove Porirua’s Māori Ward and Greater Wellington's Māori Constituency.
The majority vote of the poll (over 50% of voters) will decide the future of the Māori Ward and Māori Constituency with the results of the poll being effective from 2028.
The format of the poll question is:
I vote to KEEP the Parirua Māori ward (or Māori constituency); or
I vote to REMOVE the Parirua Māori wards (or Māori constituency).
Porirua City Council has decided to add a non-binding poll to this year's election, on whether Porirua City Council should changes that could be made to Council structures in the Wellington Region in future.
The format of the poll question is:
“Should Porirua City Council work with councils in Wellington, the Hutt Valley, and the Wellington Regional Council to explore the possibility of creating one single council, that combines relevant services and functions regionally, while keeping appropriate local services and decision making local?”
This poll is non-binding. This means that the future Council is not required to take any action, or not do anything, as a result of this poll. The results of this poll will be used to inform future policy of the Council.
Porirua uses the single transferable voting (STV) method for local elections for the mayor and councillor positions. This is a preference-based ranking system for candidates.
The votes are called ‘transferable’ because the votes can transfer between candidates (based on their ranking) to ensure a vote contributes to the election of at least one candidate the voter likes.
If a candidate for councillor is a clear winner for the position and does not need all the votes they receive, a proportion is transferred to the voter’s next preference. This ensures all votes contribute to candidates. This works the same if a candidate is not popular and receives too few votes, those votes are transferred to a voter’s next preference.
More details about how STV works can be found here.
Single transferable voting is used all over our country at other councils. Watch this short video to find out more!
