Rewi and Kiddle concede, no word yet from Lewers

While obviously disappointed, Queenstown Lakes mayoral candidates Darren Rewi and Nik Kiddle have conceded the mayoralty to John Glover.

Incumbent mayor Glyn Lewers, has not yet answered Crux phone calls.

Based on an initial progress result, John Glover received 3449 votes ahead of candidates Glyn Lewers (2635 votes), Nik Kiddle (1629 votes), Darren Rewi (1236 votes), Al Angus (712 votes), and Daniel Shand (93 votes). Final results and voting numbers won’t be published until next Thursday, October 16.

Rewi says he is disappointed but the campaign team worked hard.

“For us and the campaign team it was our first time up and so I’m obviously not as well practiced as the others. There’s probably areas that we probably could have done better and we’ll probably sit down next week and just work our way through what we think those are,” he says.

He says it is too early to decide whether he will run again.

“There’s still plenty to do in the community and be that voice and advocate out there. That’s basically what I’ll just keep doing, just keep doing the stuff that I’m doing and keep moving forward.”

Asked what promises he hoped Glover would deliver on, Rewi said he had promised a lot.

“He has to show the leadership that the community is voting him for. They want to see real leadership, they don’t want to see another term of promises.”

He says the 12-week campaign had “some good parts and bad parts,” but he respected the candidates.

With voter turnout notoriously low, whether the result could have been different if more people voted is “the big unknown”.

“If It’s a low voter turn out then potentially it’s anyone’s game. You could have a really motivated minority that get out there and they swing everything, but we won’t know until we see the numbers.”

Kiddle says he won’t run again in 2028 but it had been a good campaign by all.

Kiddle congratulated the fellow candidates on running saying he enjoyed meeting with, working with and discussing things with them.

“Everybody ran their campaigns very well and congratulations to those who have secured their objectives. I’m sure they are going to have a challenge in front of them but I’m sure it’s going to be a great team.”

Asked what he hoped Glover would deliver, he said: “Obviously restructuring the council is absolutely critical and I’m sure he’ll get onto that quickly and I’m sure the rest of the council team will support him.”

He agreed low voter turnout was disappointing and criticised the ‘archaic and flawed’ postal voting system.

“It’s very disappointing to have such a weak mandate for the council. No council should be operating on only 35 per cent of the eligible voting community .it would be more effective if the council could get the full backing of the community but that’s the way it is.