Power poll success may not mean trust seat

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 12, Issue 575, 28 February 1995, Page 4

Power poll success may not mean trust seat

A successful candidate at the polls might still not take a seat in the King Country Electric Power Trust elections, if the two Taumarunui candidates get more votes than the two from Turangi. T wo candidates have each been nominated from Turangi and Taumarunui to fill two vacancies on the trust - but because the trust deed seeks a minimum geographic representation, one of the two Taumarunui candidates could poll the second highest number of votes and still not take their place at the trust table. The trust deed says the trustees "should endeavour to ensure" that at any time at least one trustee is elected from each of the Turangi, Ohakune and Taumarunui areas, although voting takes place over the whole of the King Country Energy network area and not on a "ward" basis. Trust secretary and returning officer Norman Annand says the "should" was to cover situations when there were no nominations from a particular area, but the intention of those developing the trust deed was to ensure full geographic representation if at all possible. At present Taumarunui has two trustees and Turangi none, because the existing Turangi trustee is one of two who stood down by rotation for this election. There is a larger number of consumers in the Taumarunui area, but a large number of voters last trustee electi ons were absentee holiday home owners from Taupo ' s western shores and from Ohakune. The Turangi candidates are retiring incumbent Brian Gurney and Ken Taylor while retiring incumbent Jeremy Stubbs and former trustee June Baker are standing in Taumarunui. Ohakune is currently represented by chairperson Ian Strachan, while Taumarunui has two trustees in Neville Sanders and Graeme Cosford. Voting papers went out for the postal election on Friday , 24 February, with their return required before 5 pm on Friday, 10 March. Mr Annand reminds voters that the consumer is the person(s) or organisation named on the power account. If the power account is in the name of one person only, that person is entitled to vote. In the caseof couples, Where both names appear on the account, the vote should be a joint decision. The same would apply where two or more flatmates have their names on the power account. Consumers are only entitled to one vote, regardless of the number of power accounts they receive. The King Country Electric Power Trust holds all of the shares in King Country Energy