How to become a Candidate

How to become a candidate in the 2025 local elections

Candidate nominations will open 4 July 2025 and close 12PM 1 August 2025, but you can start preparing now by:

• finding out what is important to your local community
• learn about how the Council works, and the role of Councillors and Community Board Members.

Who can be a candidate?

To be a candidate for an Elected Member position, you must be:

• a New Zealand citizen
• over 18 years old
• enrolled on the parliamentary electoral roll, and
• nominated by two electors whose names appear in the electoral roll within the respective area you wish to stand for .
• You or your spouse/partner must not have concerns or interests in contracts over $25,000 with the council.
• If you are subject to a Court Order under section 31 of the Protection of Personal and Property Rights Act 1988, you should take legal advice.
• You do not need to reside in the area (city, district, ward, constituency, community board or local board) that you are standing for but you will need to declare this in your candidate profile statement.

Which positions am I able to stand for?

You can choose to stand for election for any position in a district council or regional council. You are able to run for Mayor, Councillor or Community Board Member.

If you choose to stand for more than one position there are some restrictions and rules:

• You cannot stand for both Ruapehu District Council and Horizons Regional Council
• You cannot stand as Councillor for more than one ward in a Council

But

• You can stand for Councillor and also for member of a Community Board or local board (but if elected to both positions, you must choose one)
• You can stand for both Mayor and Councillor
• You can stand for more than one Community Board and if elected to more than one Community Board, you can serve on all the Community Boards you are elected to.

General Ward or Māori Ward?

Any person eligible to be a candidate can stand for either of the General or Māori wards.

A candidate does not need to be of Māori descent, or be on the Māori electoral roll, to stand for the Māori ward.

Conversely a candidate does not need to be on the General roll to stand for the General ward.

N.B. Candidates cannot stand for General and Māori Wards at the same time.

Your nominators must be on the electoral roll for the area for which you are standing, e.g. if you are standing for election to the Ruapehu Māori ward, you must be nominated by two electors who are also on the electoral roll for Ruapehu Māori ward.

Only those electors on the Māori electoral roll are able to vote for those candidates standing for the Māori ward. Equally, only those on the general electoral roll are able to vote for those candidates standing for the general ward.

Standing for Mayor

If I want to stand for Mayor, does it matter which electoral roll I am on?

No, the Mayor is elected at large across the District so as long as you are eligible (on the electoral roll anywhere in the country, and be an NZ citizen) , and your nominators are on the electoral roll in the district, you can stand.

When do nominations open?

Candidate nominations open on 4 July and close at 12 noon on 1 August 2025.

Each nomination must be made on the appropriate official nomination form. A separate nomination form is required for each issue or position (for example, Mayor, Councillor or Community Board).

Nomination forms will be available from our offices in Ohakune, Raetihi and Taumarunui and from our website when nominations open (on 4 July 2025).

What do I need to submit with my nomination form?

In addition to your completed nomination form, you'll need to provide the Electoral Officer with:

1. Your candidate profile statement

This is a statement of up to 150 words containing information about you and your policies and intentions if elected to office. The candidate profile statement must be true and accurate.

If your candidate profile statement is submitted in Māori and English, the information contained in each language must be substantially consistent with the information contained in the other language. Therefore, in the case where a candidate includes a mihi or greeting as part of the profile statement provided in Māori , the mihi or greeting should be explained in the English version in a manner substantially consistent with the Māori version still within the 150-word limit.

Your profile statement must be true and accurate.

The English text must be plain text, in paragraphs, with no special formatting, i.e.

• No bold, italic, underlining etc.
• No words in CAPS (except acronyms)
• No tabs
• No quote marks
• No accent marks (this restriction is in English text only)
• No bullet points - if bullet points are provided in the profile statement, they will be turned into a “run on” list after a semi-colon
• Kia ora is two words, not one Kiaora!

If you are standing for more than one position, you are allowed more than one candidate profile statement.

In addition, the candidate profile statement :

• must state whether or not your principal place of residence, being the address in respect of which you are registered as a parliamentary elector, is in the local government area for which you are seeking election (for example, either “My principal place of residence is in the Lambton Ward” or “My principal place of residence is not in the Lambton Ward”); and
• if you are seeking election to any other positions in elections to which the Local Electoral Act 2001 applies, must specify each position and state that you are seeking to be elected to the positions.

These statements are not counted as part of the 150-word limit.

2. A recent passport size photograph, and

3. Your nomination deposit (see below).

If you choose not to supply a profile statement or photograph, then a message will appear in the profile booklet that a statement/photograph was not supplied by the candidate.

These must all be received no later than 12 noon on 1 August 2025.

Once lodged with the Electoral Officer, nomination forms (not candidate profile statements) are ‘public information’ and any person may inspect any nomination form without payment of any fee at any time during ordinary office hours, at the office of the Electoral Officer.

When do I need to submit my nomination form?

Nomination forms, with the deposit and the candidate profile statement must all be received no later than 12 noon on 1 August 2025.

Please do not leave lodging of nominations, candidate profile statements, photographs and deposits to the last minute. Should a nomination form be lodged late on the morning nominations close, and be incorrectly completed or ineligible nominators are identified, there may be insufficient time to correct the situation and the nomination form could be invalidated.

Should the document(s) be received by the Electoral Officer or Deputy Electoral Officer after the close of nominations the nomination is invalid and will not be accepted.

Nominations close at 12 noon, 1 August 2025.

Ruapehu District Council’s office hours for lodgement are:

Mon–Fri 8.00am to 5.00pm, except on 1 August when 12 noon is the cut-off time for lodgement.

• A nomination will not be accepted if any components are missing
• Should a nomination paper be lodged late on the morning nominations close, and/or be incorrectly completed or ineligible nominators are provided, there may not be enough time to correct the situation and the nomination could be invalidated.
• Any persons wishing to make a lodgement on the morning nominations close, must be in the queue for the Customer Services Desk by 11:50AM

Does it cost anything?

Yes - Each nomination form submitted requires a deposit of $200 (inclusive of GST).

This is refunded if the candidate polls greater than 25 percent of the final quota as determined at the last iteration in Single Transferable Vote (STV) elections.