Stuff report:
Wellington’s longest-standing councillor can add another three years to her tenure.
The final election results for Wellington City Council have been released this afternoon, ending a nervous wait for Northern Ward councillor Helene Ritchie who has now been re-elected.
When the preliminary results were announced on Saturday Ms Ritchie – who has spent 27 years as a councillor – was just 31 votes ahead of Peter Gilberd, leaving the result in the hands of 650 special votes still waiting to be counted. Of those, 82 were for the Northern Ward.
The council has just announced the final result, with Ms Ritchie scraping in 27 votes ahead of Mr Gilberd, giving her three more years.
How depressing.
Commiserations to Peter GIlberd who ran a strong campaign and would have made an excellent new councillor for the Northern Ward. Surely this has to be Ritchie’s final term. I look forward to her announcing midterm she won’t be standing in 2016.
WCC Watch 