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1986 Wellington City mayoral election

← 1983 11 October 1986 1989 →
Turnout	37,311 (41.77%)
Candidate Jim Belich Ian Lawrence Party Labour Citizens' Popular vote 18,873 16,519 Percentage 50.58 44.27
Mayor before election Ian Lawrence Elected mayor Jim Belich

The 1986 Wellington City mayoral election was part of the New Zealand local elections held that same year. In 1986, elections were held for the Mayor of Wellington plus other local government positions including twenty-one city councillors. The polling was conducted using the standard first-past-the-post electoral method.

Background

The election saw one-term Mayor Ian Lawrence defeated by local advertising agent Jim Belich. 1986 also saw the Labour Party win their first ever majority of seats on the Council. Electoral reforms were implemented at the 1986 municipal elections, the method of electing councillors at large which had been used since 1901 was replaced with a ward system of local electoral districts.

A major issue faced by the council during the term was the increasingly unpopular practice of raw sewage discharge into the sea. The two main candidates, Lawrence and Belich, had been friends for nearly twenty years adding a more personal element to the election than normal. The two had first met in the late-1960s when Lawrence, as a member of the Jaycees, helped organise a fundraising international ball for a UNICEF, which Belich was president of. Both agreed to a "peace pact" to fight fair in the election. Highlighting the unpopular council sewage scheme both the Labour Party and the Wellington Clean Water Campaign ran a hostile ad campaign against Lawrence and the Citizens' Association. Lawrence responded, stressing that the sewage scheme was a collective decision of the council, not a personal decision of his. In the last week of the campaign Labour launched a series of particularly controversial advertisements on Lawrence and the council. One newspaper ad showed a toilet on the beach, linking to the clean water campaign to stop raw sewage discharge at Moa Point. Lawrence was angered by the attack which reneged on a pact between the two to fight fair. Belich professed that he did not intend for any personal offence.

Ultimately Belich defeated Lawrence by over 2,000 votes, a significant turnaround from Lawrence's 8,000 vote win in 1983. The sewage issue was key to the result which Lawrence said he was both surprised and disappointed that voters judged him on that issue alone. He was also critical of the amount of campaign spending on advertising, with his opponents spending more than double what he did. The hostility of the sewage ads left him feeling bitter, but did not blame Belich personally.

Results

The following table gives the election results:

Ward results

Candidates were also elected from wards to the Wellington City Council.

Notes

1. Franks & McAloon 2016, p. 225.
2. "Local elections on ward basis". The Evening Post. 9 October 1984.
3. "Mayor, Belich — old friends". The Dominion. 17 February 1986.
4. "Pact for clean fight". The Evening Post. 19 August 1986.
5. MacDonald, Nikki (19 September 2015). "Sir James Belich - from ad-man to capital clean-up merchant". Stuff. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
6. "'New interest' as electors vote changes". The Dominion. 13 October 1986. p. 1.
7. Busby, Anita (13 October 1986). "Lawrence bows out with a brave face". The Dominion. p. 5.
8. ^ Bly, Ross (24 October 1986). Declaration of Election Results (Report). Wellington City Council.

References

• Franks, Peter; McAloon, Jim (2016). Labour: The New Zealand Labour Party 1916–2016. Wellington: Victoria University Press. ISBN 978-1-77656-074-5.

v t e Mayors of Wellington
Mayors	elected by councillors George Hunter William Guyton Joe Dransfield Charles Borlase elected at large William Sefton Moorhouse William Hutchison Joe Dransfield George Allen William Hutchison George Fisher Arthur Winton Brown Sam Brown John Duthie Charles Johnston Arthur Winton Brown Francis Bell Alfred Brandon Charles Luke George Fisher Francis Bell John Blair John Aitken Thomas William Hislop Alfred Newman Thomas Wilford David McLaren John Luke Robert Wright Charles Norwood George Troup Thomas Hislop Will Appleton Rob Macalister Frank Kitts Michael Fowler Ian Lawrence Jim Belich Fran Wilde Mark Blumsky Kerry Prendergast Celia Wade-Brown Justin Lester Andy Foster Tory Whanau
Mayoral elections	Annual term 1842 1874 1875 1876† 1877† 1878 1879‡ 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888† 1889† 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898† 1899 1901 1902† 1903† 1904 1905 1906† 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911† 1912 1913 1914 Biennial term 1915 1917† 1919 1921 1923 1925 1927 1929 1931 1933† 1935 Triennial term 1938 1941 1944 1947 1950 1953 1956 1959 1962 1965 1968 1971 1974 1977 1980 1983 1986 1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010 2013 2016 2019 2022
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† Elected unopposed ‡ By-election

• Mayoral elections in Wellington
• 1986 elections in New Zealand
• Politics of the Wellington Region