VACANCY ON COUNCIL

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31121, 26 July 1966, Page 10

VACANCY ON COUNCIL

Belfast Poll Tomorrow

Two candidates will go to the poll in a Waimairi County Council Belfast riding byelection, to be held tomorrow. Polling will be between the hours of 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. There are 713 electors on the roll.

The candidates are Messrs G. G. Don and A. W. Johns. Both are young married men, each with three children. Mr Don is a plumber, and Mr Johns belongs to a well-known Belfast farming family. The returning officer (Mr K. Maclachlan) said yesterday that although there had been little interest during the last fortnight in special voting papers for absentee or ill electors, he hoped for a good poll. At the main council elections last October, 53.5 per cent of the Belfast electors voted, compared with 55 per cent in 1962.

Asked why toe election was being held on a Wednesday, rather than the usual Saturday, Mr Maclachlan said he believed that the public were out and about more during the week and that week-end activities often stopped people voting on a Saturday. With a Wednesday election, council staff could be used in council time, thus saving cost. Details of the voting would be supplied to the Government, which was committed to try to find a system that would get more people to vote at local body elections.