Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

Local Government Act 2002

Planning, decision-making, and accountability - Reporting

99A: Pre-election report

You could also call this:

“A report explaining important local council issues before an election”

The person in charge of running your local council, called the chief executive, must create a report before each election. This report needs to include specific information that’s listed in another part of the law.

If you live in a small area with fewer than 20,000 people, your chief executive doesn’t have to include some of the financial information for the year when the election happens. Instead, they can use different financial information that’s also described in the law.

The main reason for this report is to give you and other people in your community information about important issues that your local council is dealing with. This helps everyone talk about these issues before the election.

The chief executive must finish the report and make it available to everyone at least two weeks before the day when people can start saying they want to run in the election.

One important rule about this report is that it can’t have any pictures of the current council members or any statements written by them. This keeps the report fair and focused on the facts, not on promoting specific people.

This text is automatically generated. It might be out of date or be missing some parts. Find out more about how we do this.

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM3863303.

Topics:
Government and voting > Local councils
Government and voting > Elections
Rights and equality > Anti-discrimination
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“Making sure your yearly report and its summary are checked by an expert”

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“Make sure you have enough money coming in to cover what you plan to spend”

Part 6 Planning, decision-making, and accountability
Reporting

99APre-election report

  1. The chief executive of a local authority must prepare a pre-election report containing the information required by clause 36 of Schedule 10.

  2. However, the chief executive of a local authority that has an ordinarily resident population of fewer than 20 000 people need not comply with clause 36(1)(a) and (2) of Schedule 10 for the financial year ending in the same year as the election.

  3. Instead of complying with clause 36(1)(a) and (2) of Schedule 10, the chief executive of the local authority referred to in subsection (2) may include in a pre-election report the information set out in clause 37 of Schedule 10.

  4. The purpose of a pre-election report is to provide information to promote public discussion about the issues facing the local authority.

  5. A pre-election report must be completed and published no later than the day that is 2 weeks before the nomination day for a triennial general election of members of a local authority under the Local Electoral Act 2001.

  6. A pre-election report must not contain a statement by, or a photograph of, an elected member of the local authority.

Notes
  • Section 99A: inserted, on , by section 17 of the Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Act 2010 (2010 No 124).