From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

2025 Hamilton City Council election

The 2025 Hamilton City Council election was a local election held from 9 September to 11 October in Hamilton, New Zealand, as part of that year's territorial authority elections and other local elections held nation-wide.

The 2025 Hamilton City Council election was a local election held from 9 September to 11 October in Hamilton, New Zealand, as part of that year's territorial authority elections and other local elections held nation-wide.

Voters elected the mayor of Hamilton and 14 city councillors for the 2025–2028 term of the Hamilton City Council. Postal voting and the single transferable vote system were used.

A finalised list of candidate names was released by the City Council on 4 August identifying 52 candidates, including 12 candidates for mayor. Incumbent mayor Paula Southgate did not run for re-election.

Councillor Tim Macindoe won the mayoralty, with fellow councillor Sarah Thomson coming in second place.

The council introduced a Māori ward at the 2022 election; in a referendum on its future held at this election (as part of a nation-wide series of referendums) voters elected to keep the Māori ward.

4 July 2025: Nominations for candidates opened
1 August 2025: Nominations for candidates closed at 12 pm
9 September 2025: Voting documents were posted and voting opened
11 October 2025: Voting closed at 12 pm and progress/preliminary results were published
16–19 October 2025: Final results were declared.

Column 1	Column 2
	This section needs expansion. You can help by adding missing information. (July 2025)

Voters in the city elected the mayor of Hamilton and 14 councillors from 3 wards. They also elected several members of the Waikato Regional Council.

Column 1	Column 2
	This section needs expansion. You can help by adding missing information. (July 2025)

Better Hamilton was a group of candidates who jointly campaigned during the election campaign.

Paula Southgate, mayor since 2019
Moko Tauariki, councillor for the Kirikiriroa Maaori ward since 2022
Ewan Wilson, councillor in the West ward since 2019
Kesh Naidoo-Rauf, councillor in the East ward since 2019

Incumbent mayor Paula Southgate did not run for re-election. Incumbent councillor and former National MP Tim Macindoe contested the election, as well as incumbent councillors Sarah Thomson and Maria Huata. Rachel Karalus also ran.

The Kirikiriroa Maaori ward returned two councillors to the city council.

Candidate	Notes
Jarrad Gallagher	None
Maria Huata	None	Incumbent councillor since 2024 by-election. Also ran for mayor.
Lawrence Jensen	Independent
Robbie Neha	Independent
Andrew Lewis Pope	None
Jahvaya Watene Wheki	Independent

The West ward returned six councillors to the city council.

Candidate	Notes
Paul Alforque	None	Lawyer and consultant.
Matthew Beveridge	Independent
Mark Flyger	Better Hamilton
Nidhita Gosai	ACT Local	Process safety engineer
Louise Hutt	None	Incumbent councillor
Mesh Macdonald	Better Hamilton
Allan James McKie	None
Graeme Mead	Better Hamilton
Angela O'Leary	Independent	Incumbent councillor and deputy mayor
Emma Pike	Independent	Incumbent councillor
Dave Taylor	None	Also ran for mayor
Geoff Taylor	None	Incumbent councillor
Sarah Thomson	Independent	Incumbent councillor, also standing as a mayoral candidate
Mike West	Better Hamilton
Roderick John Young	None

The East ward returned six councillors to the city council.

Candidate	Notes
Rachel Afeaki	Independent
Stuart David Aitken	Better Hamilton
Andrew Bydder	Better Hamilton	Incumbent councillor and architectural designer
Anna Casey-Cox	None	Incumbent councillor
Preet Dhaliwal	ACT Local	Hospitality business owner
Rudi du Plooy	None	Previously stood as a joint New Conservatives & NewZeal (formerly known as ONE Party) candidate in the 2022 Election for the Hamilton West electorate. Also ran for mayor.
Jack Gielen	The Peoples Voice	Former deputy leader for The Republic of New Zealand Party. Also ran for mayor.
Marie Hamilton	Independent	Ryan Hamilton, MP for Hamilton East representing the National Party is Marie's husband.
Louise Rachel Harvey	New Zealand Constitution Party
Suhair Sabah Hassan	New Zealand Constitution Party
Horiana Henderson	Better Hamilton
Peter Humphreys	None
Tim Hunt	None
Jason Jonassen	Independent
Rachel Karalus	Independent	Also ran for mayor.
Leo Liu	Better Hamilton
Tim Macindoe	Independent	Incumbent councillor, also standing as a mayoral candidate.
Danielle Marks	None	Green Party endorsed.
Alexander Bruce McConnochie	None
John McDonald	Better Hamilton	Also ran for mayor
Sue Moroney	None	Previously a Labour Party list MP, 2005-2017
Jenny Nand	Independent
Jono Ng	Independent
Turi Robinson	Independent
Jamie Strange	Independent	Previously a Labour List MP and then MP for Hamilton East, 2017-2023.
Jackie Talbot	Independent
Maxine van Oosten	None	Incumbent councillor

Councillor Tim Macindoe won the mayoral election, with Sarah Thomson coming second.

Affiliation	Candidate	Primary vote	%	Iteration vote	Final %
	Independent	Tim MacIndoe	16,895	44.39	18,275	50.30
	Independent	Sarah Thomson	9,240	24.28	10,183	28.03
	Independent	Maria Huata	3,718	9.77	4,329	11.91
	Independent	Rachel Karalus	3,049	8.01	3,546	9.76
	Independent	Rudi Du Plooy	1,427	3.75	1,692
	Independent	Dave Taylor	818	2.15	1,047
	Independent	John McDonald	657	1.73	759
	Animal Justice	Lily Carrington	632	1.66	681
	NZ Constitution	Roma Tupaea-Warren	310	0.81	347
	Independent	Jack Gielen	271	0.71	292
	Independent	Roger Stratford	214	0.56	220
	Independent	Guy Temoni-Syme	212	0.56	212
18,722	49.19	18,167	50.00
210	0.55
410	1.08
38,063

	Independent gain from Independent on 9th iteration

Affiliation	Candidate	Primary vote	%	Iteration vote
	Independent	Sarah Thomson†	2,882	19.58	2,882
	Independent	Geoff Taylor†	2,628	17.85	2,628
	Better Hamilton	Graeme Mead	1,566	10.64	2,035
	Better Hamilton	Mesh MacDonald	1,106	7.51	2,324
	Independent	Angela O'Leary†	1,024	6.96	1,936
	Independent	Emma Pike†	710	4.82	1,868
	Independent	Louise Hutt†	989	6.72	1,733
	Better Hamilton	Mark Flyger	712	4.84	1,335
	Better Hamilton	Mike West	541	3.68	908
	Independent	Dave Taylor	524	3.56	785
	ACT Local	Nidhita Gosai	543	3.69	630
	Independent	Allan McKie	416	2.83	516
	Independent	Matthew Beveridge	408	2.78	484
	Independent	Paul Alforque	188	1.28	212
	Independent	Roderick Young	58	0.39	65
2,042	13.87	1,842
175	1.19
249	1.69
14,719

	Independent hold on 1st iteration
	Independent hold on 1st iteration
	Better Hamilton gain from Independent on 10th iteration
	Better Hamilton gain from Independent Green on 16th iteration
	Independent hold on 18th iteration
	Independent hold on 21st iteration
† incumbent

Affiliation	Candidate	Primary vote	%	Iteration vote
	Independent	Rachel Karalus	2,288	11.96	2,607
	Better Hamilton	Andrew Bydder†	1,916	10.02	2,561
	Independent	Anna Casey-Cox†	1,593	8.33	2,744
	Independent	Jamie Strange	1,511	7.90	2,535
	Better Hamilton	Leo Liu	1,320	6.90	2,588
	Independent	Sue Moroney	1,326	6.93	2,431
	Independent	Marie Hamilton	1,135	5.93	2,104
	Independent	Rudi Du Plooy	872	4.56	1,317
	Independent	Maxine van Oosten†	848	4.43	1,142
	Independent	Rachel Afeaki	773	4.04	1,053
	ACT Local	Preet Dhaliwai	645	3.37	796
	Independent Green	Danielle Marks	555	2.90	718
	Better Hamilton	John McDonald	525	2.74	647
	Independent	Jackie Talbot	491	2.57	558
	Independent	Jenny Nand	457	2.39	520
	Better Hamilton	Stuart Aitken	438	2.29	484
	Independent	Peter Humphreys	376	1.97	440
	Better Hamilton	Horiana Henderson	273	1.43	298
	Independent	Jason Jonassen	229	1.20	248
	Independent	Jono Ng	185	0.97	191
	Independent	Tim Hunt	142	0.74	147
	Independent	Jack Gielen	140	0.73	146
	Independent	Alexander McConnochie	84	0.44	84
	NZ Constitution	Suhair Hassan	73	0.38	82
	NZ Constitution	Louise Harvey	46	0.24	47
	Independent	Turi Robinson	29	0.15	29
	Independent	Tim Macindoe†	withdrawn (elected mayor)
2,610	13.64	2,389
386	2.02
183	0.96
19,131

	Independent gain from Independent on 15th iteration
	Better Hamilton gain from Team Integrity on 17th iteration
	Independent hold on 21st iteration
	Independent gain from Independent on 23rd iteration
	Better Hamilton gain from Independent on 24th iteration
	Independent gain from Independent on 25th iteration
† incumbent

Affiliation	Candidate	Primary vote	%	Iteration vote
	Independent	Maria Huata†	2,620	62.19	2,620
	Independent	Robbie Neha	511	12.13	1,163
	Independent	Jahvaya Wheki	383	9.09	1,013
	Independent	Jarrad Gallagher	350	8.31	550
	Independent	Lawrence Jensen	189	4.49	317
	Independent	Andrew Pope	20	0.47	31
1,358	32.23	1,159
71	1.69
69	1.64
4,213

	Independent hold on 1st iteration
	Independent gain from Independent on 5th iteration
† incumbent

Choice	Votes	%
I vote to KEEP Maaori wards	19,190	54.04
I vote to REMOVE Maaori wards	16,320	45.96
Total	35,510	100.00

35,510	93.29
2,553	6.71
38,063	100.00
Source:

2025 Hauraki District Council election

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about 2025 Hamilton City Council election — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report