1986 Christchurch City Council election

The 1986 Christchurch City Council election was a local election held from September to 11 October in Christchurch, New Zealand, as part of that year's nation-wide local elections. Voters elected the mayor of Christchurch and 19 city councillors for the 1986–1989 term of the Christchurch City Council. The first-past-the-post voting system was used. Postal voting was used for the first time in Christchurch, and as with councils that had introduced this method earlier, it increased the turnout.

Waimairi District had introduced postal voting in the 1983 local elections and had a good experience. The cost of running an election had decreased, and voter turnout increased. With the remaining local bodies introducing postal voting, including Christchurch City, the metropolitan Christchurch area now all used the postal voting system. One consequence of the change was that on polling day, the votes had to be with the returning officer by noon, whereas the polling booths had previously been open until 7 pm. Voters received their polling documents from 26 September onwards.^[1]

Residents were asked to contact the electoral officer if they had not received their voting forms by 2 October.^[1] Voters had until 10:30 am on Friday, 10 October, to have their envelope in a mailbox for it to delivered to the returning officer by the next day.^[2]

Christchurch City Council administered the election with 40 temporary staff to compile and send out the voting documents, increasing to 240 staff needed on election for counting.^[3]

Sitting Mayor Hamish Hay was re-elected for a fifth term with a decreased majority, defeating councillor Alex Clark of the Labour Party, who had likewise lost to Hay in 1977.^[4]

Nineteen councillors were elected across five wards, with each ward being represented by four councillors, or three in the case of the West ward. Both the Christchurch Citizens' Association and Labour Party put forward nineteen candidates each for the council.^[5]

Four councillors were elected in the North ward. There were eight candidates: four each from the Christchurch Citizens' Association and Labour Party.

Four councillors were elected in the South ward. There were nine candidates: four each from the Christchurch Citizens' Association and Labour Party, plus a perennial candidate, Michael Hansen (later known as Tubby Hansen). Louise Moore, who stood for the Labour Party, was the only incumbent councillor across all wards who failed to get re-elected.^[4]

Three councillors were elected in the West ward. There were eight candidates: three each from the Christchurch Citizens' Association and Labour Party, plus two independents running under the banner of Ratepayers' Protection.

Four councillors were elected in the East ward. There were ten candidates: four each from the Christchurch Citizens' Association and Labour Party, plus two independents running under the banner of Ratepayers' Protection.

Four councillors were elected in the Pegasus ward. There were eight candidates: four each from the Citizens' Association and Labour Party.

Footnotes: * denotes incumbents

Seven councillors were new to the city council.^[4] The town clerk summed the election result up as "no change". Hamish Hay remained mayor, and his Citizens' Association had a ten councillors compared to nine from the Labour Party. That mirrored the majority after the 1983 local election. The Christchurch Ratepayers' Protection Committee had arisen from the 1985 rates revolt, but their four candidates came last in the wards they stood.^[12] Maurice Carter remained the deputy mayor; he had been on the city council since the 1956 local elections.^[13]