The 2025 Queenstown Lakes District Council election was a local election held from 9 September to 11 October in the Queenstown Lakes District of New Zealand, as part of that year's territorial authority elections and other local elections held nation-wide.
Voters elected the mayor of Queenstown Lakes, 11 district councillors, and other local representatives for the 2025–2028 term of the Queenstown Lakes District Council. Postal voting and the first-past-the-post voting system were used.
John Glover won the mayoralty, defeating incumbent mayor Glyn Lewers.
Key dates 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.
Background
Positions up for election Voters in the district elected the mayor of Queenstown Lakes, 11 district councillors in 3 wards, and the members of the Wānaka-Upper Clutha Community Board. They also elected several members to the Otago Regional Council.
Campaign
List of candidates Incumbents not seeking re-election Esther Whitehead, councillor for the Queenstown-Whakatipu ward
Mayor CandidateAffiliation NotesAl AngusNonePreviously ran for mayor in 2022John GloverNoneHotel owner. Ran in the 2023 Arrowtown-Kawarau by-election.Nik KiddleIndependentMayoral candidate in 2019Glyn LewersNoneIncumbent mayor since 2022Darren RewiNoneChair of Mana Tahuna Charitable TrustDaniel ShandIndependent (Direct Democracy)Previously ran for the mayoralty in 2022
Councillors Queenstown-Whakatipu general ward Queenstown-Whakatipu general ward returned four councillors to the district council. CandidateAffiliation NotesGavin BartlettNoneIncumbent councillorStephen BrentNoneLawyer and chair of 45South Community FoundationAaron CowieIndependentCraig "Ferg" FergusonNoneIncumbent councillorJon MitchellIndependentPreviously ran for the mayoralty in 2022Rene SmithNoneMatt WongIndependentIncumbent councillor
Wānaka-Upper Clutha general ward Wānaka-Upper Clutha general ward returned four councillors to the district council.
CandidateAffiliation NotesBarry BruceNoneIncumbent councillorLyal CocksNoneIncumbent councillorCraig GassonNoneNiki GladdingIndependentIncumbent councillor for the Queenstown-Whakatipu wardNicola KingNoneYeverley McCarthyNoneQuentin SmithNoneIncumbent deputy mayorCody TuckerNoneIncumbent councillorThorsk G WestphalNone
Arrowtown-Kawarau general ward Arrowtown-Kawarau general ward returned three councillors to the district council.
CandidateAffiliation Notes"Q" (Samuel) BelkNoneHeath CoplandNonePreviously ran for council in 2019Lisa GuyNoneIncumbent councillorTim ManningNoneMelissa WhiteNoneIncumbent councillor
Results
Overall turnout for this election was 41.16%, with 12,927 voting papers returned.
With the final results, the following candidates were declared elected:
Mayor John Glover won the mayoralty, defeating incumbent mayor Glyn Lewers.
Councillors Queenstown-Whakatipu Ward
Wānaka-Upper Clutha Ward
Arrowtown-Kawarau Ward
See also 2025 Otago Regional Council election 2025 Dunedin City Council election
Notes
References