# 1971 Wellington City mayoral election

The 1971 Wellington City mayoral election was part of the New Zealand local elections held that same year. In 1971, elections were held for the Mayor of Wellington plus other local government positions including fifteen city councillors. The polling was conducted using the standard first-past-the-post electoral method.

## Background

The election saw incumbent Mayor Sir Frank Kitts re-elected for a record equaling sixth term as Wellington's Mayor, defeating his main opponent, former New Zealand Farmers' Union chairman Alex O'Shea. The Citizens' Association has difficulty in selecting its mayoral candidate with many speculating that it would not opt to contest the position, leading commentators to label them as "defeatist". Deputy mayor George Porter was approached to stand, but declined the nomination for "personal reasons", offering himself only for a council seat. Eventually O'Shea was chosen by the Citizens' Association executive over two other undisclosed aspirants.
The election also saw a third electoral ticket emerge "Civic Reform", who would unsuccessfully challenge the two-ticket system that had dominated Wellington's local body politics since the 1930s. Civic Reform also contested the 1974 and 1977 local elections with even less success.
The main talking point following the election was that the initial results showed that the Labour Party had won a majority on the council, the first time they had done so. However, following the counting of special votes the fifteenth highest (last successful) polling candidate, Labour's Joe Aspell, lost his seat to Citizens' candidate Ian Lawrence (a future Mayor) after a 23-vote lead became a 17-vote defeat thus leaving the state of parties at 8–7 in favour of the Citizens' Association.

## Mayoralty results

1971 Wellington mayoral election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Labour | Sir Frank Kitts | 20,146 | 63.75 | −1.42 |
| | Citizens' | Alex O'Shea | 9,915 | 31.37 | |
| | Civic Reform | Donald McMillain | 1,255 | 3.97 | |
| Informal votes | Informal votes | Informal votes | 283 | 0.89 | −0.02 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 10,231 | 32.37 | +1.11 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 31,599 | 44.30 | −3.20 |

## Councillor results

1971 Wellington City Council election :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| Labour | Rolland O'Regan | 18,648 | 59.01 | −3.54 |
| Labour | John Jeffries | 18,541 | 58.67 | −1.31 |
| Labour | Olive Smuts-Kennedy | 17,911 | 56.68 | +0.11 |
| Citizens' | Stewart Duff | 16,345 | 51.72 | −4.88 |
| Citizens' | George Porter | 16,117 | 51.00 | −8.66 |
| Citizens' | Betty Campbell | 15,564 | 49.25 | +1.14 |
| Labour | David Shand | 14,488 | 45.84 | |
| Labour | Keith Spry | 14,004 | 44.31 | −1.11 |
| Citizens' | Michael Fowler | 13,570 | 42.94 | +1.15 |
| Citizens' | Denis Foot | 13,270 | 41.99 | |
| Labour | Brian O'Brien | 13,083 | 41.40 | |
| Citizens' | Les Chapman | 12,789 | 40.47 | −6.66 |
| Citizens' | Ron Button | 12,603 | 39.88 | −2.30 |
| Labour | Warwick McKean | 12,251 | 38.77 | |
| Citizens' | Ian Lawrence | 11,953 | 37.82 | |
| Labour | Joe Aspell | 11,936 | 37.77 | |
| Citizens' | Fairlie Curry | 11,695 | 37.01 | |
| Citizens' | Reg Fyfe | 11,484 | 36.34 | |
| Citizens' | Nancy Horrocks | 11,280 | 35.69 | |
| Labour | Norm Bevan | 11,269 | 35.66 | |
| Citizens' | Bernard Kaiser | 11,018 | 34.86 | |
| Citizens' | Hollis Reed | 10,894 | 34.47 | −9.31 |
| Labour | Pat Brockie | 10,789 | 34.14 | |
| Labour | Florence Vincent | 10,314 | 32.64 | −4.70 |
| Citizens' | George Madgwick | 10,687 | 33.82 | −1.71 |
| Labour | Yvonne Grove | 9,854 | 31.18 | −6.37 |
| Citizens' | Peter Robertson | 9,747 | 30.84 | |
| Labour | Donovan Walker | 9,475 | 29.98 | |
| Labour | Adam Floyd | 8,707 | 27.55 | |
| Labour | Hannah Harwood | 8,633 | 27.32 | |
| Independent | Saul Goldsmith | 6,050 | 19.14 | +2.00 |
| Civic Reform | Bill O'Brien | 4,547 | 14.38 | |
| Civic Reform | Don McMillain | 3,829 | 12.11 | +2.58 |
| Independent | Donald Young | 3,408 | 10.78 | |
| Civic Reform | Aota Leilua | 2,723 | 8.61 | |
| Civic Reform | Catherine Stafford | 2,720 | 8.60 | |
| Civic Reform | Ron England | 2,637 | 8.34 | |
| Civic Reform | Don McPherson | 2,214 | 7.00 | |
| Civic Reform | Vao Teo | 2,040 | 6.45 | |
| Independent | Italo Vincent John Comis | 1,886 | 5.96 | |
| Civic Reform | Donald Ross | 1,613 | 5.10 | |
| Civic Reform | Colin Percy | 1,611 | 5.09 | |
| Civic Reform | Carl Edwards | 1,563 | 4.94 | |
| Civic Reform | Des Lena | 1,519 | 4.80 | |
| Civic Reform | Alan Ogden | 1,380 | 4.36 | |
| Civic Reform | Joseph Pratt | 1,252 | 3.96 | |
| Independent | Frank Moncur | 1,055 | 3.33 | |
| Civic Reform | John Pell | 956 | 3.02 | |
| Civic Reform | Rob Simmons | 758 | 2.39 | |