A massive 58 per cent of Waiheke voters took part in choosing new representatives for Auckland Council.
Only Great Barrier voters proved more passionate, with 69.6 per cent of eligible voters casting a vote.
Participation on Waiheke was far higher than the 38 per cent of enrolled voters who voted throughout Auckland region.
Waiheke’s newly elected local board members are Bob Upchurch, Cath Handley, Paul Walden, Shirin Brown and John Meeuwsen.
Waitemata and Gulf councillor Mike Lee has retained his seat and Auckland’s new mayor is Phil Goff.
Preliminary results show that Mr Upchurch was the highest polling Waiheke Local Board candidate, with 1974 votes, followed by Mr Walden on 1831.
Ms Handley received 1741 votes, Ms Brown 1619, and Mr Meeuwsen 1427.
Christine Gisby narrowly missed election, with 1350 votes, while Becs Ballard gained 1336 and Tracey Weston 1237.
Jo Holmes and Jim Hannan, who were board members from 2010 to 2013, won 1182 and 1169 votes respectively
Newcomer Irene Armstrong gained 1024 votes and Sara McLeod received 350 votes.
Mr Lee won 9244 votes, closely followed by Bill Ralston on 8202, while Rob Thomas received 4335 votes.
The new Auckland District Health Board members are Jo Agnew, Lee Mathias, Michelle Atkinson, Judith Ola Bassett, Douglas Armstrong, Robyn Northey and Zoe Brownlie.
The new local board will hold its inaugural meeting on 29 October.
• Rose Davis
Also in this issue read more about our new mayor’s olive branch to Waiheke
