It’s time to choose who will make the ‘scary’ calls for our district

Voting in the New Plymouth District Council local election opens today, so it’s time to make your choice on who you think should be our next mayor, councillors, community board members and decide the future of our Māori ward.

These are the people who will decide on how our district evolves over the next three years, how rates are spent, how much it costs to register your dog or swim at our pools, where you can build and ensuring we are future-proofing critical assets such as roads and water infrastructure.

“Every resident is impacted by the decisions these elected members will make - so whether you own a home, rent or are someone that uses our venues and services it is important you have your say in who will be making those calls,” says NPDC’s Manager Customer & Communications Ben Kohlis

Voting papers are due to start arriving in letterboxes from today (9 September) through to 22 September with voting closing at midday on Saturday 11 October.  Any New Zealand citizen or permanent resident 18 years or older is eligible to vote and can still enrol up until Friday 10 October at vote.nz however you will require a special vote.

Once again NPDC’s election campaign has focused on getting people to ‘stand’, providing information to residents to get to ‘know’ their candidates and ‘Vote now’ to encourage voter turnout.

Since launching three weeks ago the Know your Candidate section of our Vote 2025 website has had 169,000 page views so far. This section includes the answers to questions we asked  candidates on a range of hot topics that have hit the news headline and fuelled social media commentary over the past few years as well as their aspirations for the future.

NPDC’s ‘Vote Now’ phase is a tongue-in cheek Halloween themed campaign again highlights some of these hot topics.

“This year’s campaign theme is partly due to the time of year when voting will close, but more importantly targeting younger voters and recognising that the decisions elected members have to make are not for the faint hearted,” says Mr Kohlis.

Progress results will be announced on Saturday 11 October 2025, preliminary results expected on Sunday 12 October and final results are expected to be announced Friday 17 October.

See our website npdc.govt.nz/vote2025 for more information.

Election Fast Facts

• This is a postal vote so you need to fill in your papers and get them in the post in plenty of time to reach us no later than midday 11 October.
• You can put them in ballot boxes NPDC sites throughout the district, including all our libraries, Puke Ariki, Todd Energy Aquatic Centre and the Civic Centre in Liardet Street.  
• There will also be a drive-through ballot box at the Civic Centre on October 4 and 11.  See our online map for details of locations closest to you.

The positions local voters will decide on are:

• NP District Mayor​
• Six Councillors in Kaitake/Ngāmotu ward (for voters in on the role in New Plymouth city to Ōkato)​
• One Councillor in North Ward (Waitara up to Waitomo District Council border)​​
• One Councillor in the Kōhanga Moa ward (area including Egmont Village, Inglewood and Tarata)
• One Councillor in the Te Purutanga Mauri Pūmanawa (Māori ward)​​
• Five district wide councillors (these councillors would represent the whole district)​
• Four positions on each of the Inglewood and Waitara community boards.

Puketapu-Bell Block Local Board have been elected unopposed and by-elections are required for one vacancy on Clifton and Kaitake community boards with just three nominations received, all of who have been elected.

We are required to run a poll on whether to keep or remove our Māori ward in the next two elections. The results will be legally binding.

By the numbers:​

• 82 nominations received for the 2025 election, up from 77 in 2022​.
• 9 candidates are running for Mayor in 2025, up from 8 in 2022.​
• 45.1%: The voter turnout in 2022.
• NPDC Vote 2025 website has received 169,000 page views for Know your Candidates (Know Your Candidates page) as of 9 September.

Caption: Front doors of NPDC’s Civic Centre.