Andrew Little has convincingly won his bid to be the mayor of Wellington, saying he is excited and “somewhat daunted” by the role.
In April, the former Labour Party leader and senior cabinet minister announced he would run for Wellington’s top job.
Not long after, Tory Whanau announced she would not seek re-election for the role and would instead look to be the next Wellington Māori ward councillor.
Based on current results, she has lost that race to Labour candidate Matthew Reweti.
With 85% of the vote in, Little received 34,240 votes, a comfortable lead over runner-up Karl Tiefenbacher, who got 8807, and third-placed Ray Chung, who received 6838 votes.
On the returned votes, fellow Labour candidates Ben McNulty, Afnan Al-Rubayee, Nureddin Abdurahman, Sam O’Brien and Matthew Reweti were elected.
Based on the same data, Greens candidates Geordie Rogers, Rebecca Matthews, Jonny Osborne and Laurie Foon will join them.
Those results would mean left-leaning party-aligned candidates would make up 10 of the 16 seats on council, including the mayor.
When asked how he felt, Little said he was thrilled, excited and somewhat daunted.
“I know there are big challenges, but I feel very privileged and honoured to have the confidence of Wellingtonians.”
Little said people had seen him as a person with a set of skills and a track record of leadership.
He said he was notified of his win by a call by the Wellington City Council chief executive Matt Prosser.
Little first entered politics in 2011 and left parliament following Labour’s 2023 election defeat.
He shot to the party leadership in 2014, but stood down just two months out from the 2017 election, making way for Jacinda Ardern, who went on to become prime minister.
During his time in government, Little held 12 ministerial portfolios.
rnz.co.nz
