September 19, 2022
Māori candidates in lead for Wellington mayoralty
Former Green Party chief of staff Tory Whanau has shown she’s a contender for the Wellington mayoralty, with a new poll putting her a close second behind former deputy mayor and Labour Rongotai MP Paul Eagle.
The Kanter Public poll for TVNZ found Mr Eagle getting 28 percent of first preference votes and Ms Whanau 26 percent.
Sitting mayor Andy Foster was on 20 percent, but under the city’s single transferrable voting system he’s likely to pick up the votes of fourth-placed Ray Chung.
The race is still too close to call, with 47 percent of the 500 Wellingtonians polled either not knowing or not saying how they would rank the candidates.