Tom Campbell, at his Invercargill home, with wife Jessie. Photo: Local Democracy Reporting/ Matthew Rosenberg
Invercargill's likely new mayor Tom Campbell says he is "absolutely delighted" by the election result.
Progress results on Saturday had Campbell almost 1900 votes clear of his closest rival, Alex Crackett, with about 2600 votes left to count.
"It's been a long election campaign, and to be honest towards the end I was just wishing it was over. I think every candidate has probably felt like that," Campbell said on Saturday.
"I feel very, very grateful to the people who voted for me."
Campbell served a single term as a councillor after racking up the second most votes in the 2022 election and was appointed deputy mayor by Nobby Clark.
Looking ahead, he wanted to prioritise finding a solution to the city's old Briscoes building, which was burnt-out in a 2023 fire, and keeping rates under control.
Selecting chair roles for the incoming council would be critical, he said, and the upcoming week would include meetings with the chief executive and all councillors.
"Councils are under enormous cost pressure, particularly around water cost. And really, it's going to be extremely challenging to try to do what we're required to do by the government and still keep rates low."
The result came on a special day for Campbell, who was celebrating his wedding anniversary with wife Jessie.
Originally from Scotland, the pair moved to New Zealand with their young family in the early 1980s, and Campbell took up a job at Tiwai Point aluminium smelter.
His election website shows he spent 28 years travelling the world with Rio Tinto - a metals and mining giant - but says he always came back to Invercargill.
Campbell said his interest in local politics was piqued after the mayoral forum asked him to manage the Southland Regional Development Strategy in 2015.
As for other seats at the council, both Steve Broad and Crackett had secured re-election as councillors, but the organisation was yet to confirm any other winners, including for mayoralty, due to the number of votes still to count.
Progress results have all Invercargill councillors who sought re-election returning, plus the arrival of Marcus Lush, Ian Reeves and Lisa Tou McNaughton. Results could change once votes collected on Saturday and special votes are accounted for.
The next step, preliminary results, were expected either late on Saturday, or on Sunday, followed by final results later next week.
Progress results for Invercargill City Council:
Mayoralty: Tom Campbell 6064, Alex Crackett 4167, Ian Pottinger 1939, Ria Bond 1496, Tom Morton 570, Andrew Clark 248, Stevey Chernishov 169, Gordon McCrone 45.
Councillors (12 vacancies): Steve Broad 9589, Alex Crackett 8350, Grant Dermody 7142, Marcus Lush 7018, Trish Boyle 6406, Darren Ludlow 6299, Ria Bond 6188, Ian Pottinger 6038, Allan Arnold 5241, Barry Stewart 4953, Ian Reeves 4933, Lisa Tou McNaughton 4797, Andrea De Vries 4785, Lynley McKerrow 4737, David Meads 4568, Karl Herman 4088, Terry King 4052, Chris Dawson 3834, Jay Coote 3331, Panie Coote 3283, Tony Van Der Lem 3238, Tom Morton 2740, Carl Heenan 2560, Dan O'Connell 2001, Amanda Laurie 1805, Noel Peterson 1070, Carol Jasperse 860.
- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
