About 150 residents attended an event in Ashburton last night to meet the candidates in the Local Elections, including those wanting to be mayor.

Chief Executive Hamish Riach said the meeting was also livestreamed, with just over 1000 Facebook views online at the time of the meeting and 2200 views by Thursday lunchtime.

“It’s great to see so much interest in the Local Elections, especially with voting papers due to start arriving in letterboxes from 9 September.

“Those who couldn’t make it along last night can watch the meeting on Council’s Facebook page or on our YouTube channel.”

Mr Riach said the event gave candidates a good chance to show the voting public who they are and why they are standing.

“There were some set questions and some questions from the audience, and then candidates were available after the event to chat with voters over a cup of tea.”

A Meet the Candidate event in Methven last week attracted 60 residents, who heard from the four mayoral candidates and those running for the Western Ward.

Mr Riach said Council’s role in the Local Elections was to encourage residents to be part of the democratic process and have their say in electing a Council that would make decisions on their behalf.

“We know that people feel more engaged and are more likely to vote when they know something about the candidate and what they stand for, and we’ve tried to make it easier for voters to be informed so that when those voting papers arrive, people can tick the boxes of the candidates they want, and return them.”

Are you looking for information about candidates in the local elections?

Head on over to voteashburton.nz. The webpage has written profiles about those standing for the Ashburton District mayoralty, the Ashburton Ward and the Western Ward, and 90-second videos about why they are standing for Council.

Links to the Ashburton Meet the Candidate evening, which was livestreamed and recorded, are also on the voteashburton.nz website.

Local candidates standing for the two Mid Canterbury seats on Environment Canterbury were also at the Ashburton meeting. You can find out more about the regional council’s election here.

Key dates

• 9-22 September – voting packs delivered
• 9 September – voting opens and continues up to noon on Saturday 11 October
• 7 October – deadline for posting voting papers. It’s a postal vote to papers need to be posted by 7 October to ensure they reach us by noon on 11 October
• 11 October (noon) – voting closes. Voting papers can be dropped into one of the orange ballot bins from 9 September up until 12pm – these are at the Ashburton Library, EA Networks Centre, Mobil Rakaia, Methven Four Square and the new Fresh Choice in Tinwald