Waihemo voters could be voting in their second by-election this year after they elected their community board chairwoman Kathy Dennison on to the Waitaki District Council yesterday.
That will leave a vacancy on the Waihemo Community Board, which will have to be filled by another by-election, unless no-one or only one person is nominated to stand.
Mrs Dennison was one of three candidates who stood in the by-election to elect Waihemo's single councillor to the council. She was a Waitaki district councillor for one term from 1998 to 2004.
She will be sworn-in as a councillor again at the council meeting on Tuesday.
When the poll closed yesterday at noon, she had 412 votes, with fellow Waihemo board member Ken Brown on 291 and Maria Barta-Hinckley on 167. There were four informal votes and one blank paper was returned.
There were 875 votes returned out of 1697 papers sent out, a 51.56% return.
Electoral officer Joanne Firman confirmed yesterday a councillor was not allowed to also serve as an elected member of a community board.
That would require another by-election to fill Mrs Dennison's vacancy on the community board, probably about the middle of this year.
A by-election was needed to fill the Waihemo ward vacancy on the council after Alex Familton was elected Waitaki Mayor in October's local body elections.
Mr Familton was re-elected unopposed as the Waihemo councillor but had to relinquish his ward seat of councillor when he was elected mayor.
Community boards were able to fill a vacancy by appointment, but that was changed by the Local Electoral Act in 2001.
The board could still make an appointment if no-one was nominated in the by-election. A byelection would also not be needed if there was only one nomination.
The cost of elections and byelections are met by all ratepayers.
Mrs Firman said the cost of the by-election would not be known until all invoices had been received.
