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E oku rangatira o nga tini hapu o Ngati Porou whanui, koutou kai te kaenga, kai te whenua hoki, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena tatau katoa.
I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge everyone who participated in the Te Runanganui o Ngati Porou (TRONPnui) 2015 Election. To the candidates, the voters, and all our whanau, thank you for putting yourselves forward, voting, and engaging in our tribal democratic process to get the best people we can leading our Iwi.
It is really important that the people of Ngati Porou have their say. TRONPnui looks after a range of assets on behalf of all Ngati Porou and we need the Runanganui to be well governed so that our people can be confident, that good decisions are being made and good directions are being set for our people, our taonga, our whenua, our heritage and our future.
As of 9am this morning 3,951 people had already cast their vote. I visited the Gisborne Wahi Pooti (Polling Station) at our Te Tini o Porou office site, for the closing hour of the 2015 vote. We had voters arriving just minutes before the cut off at 12noon to cast their votes and make sure they had their say.
Mate Wynyard (seen in attached photo) from Whareponga and Hiruharama was one of these people. After misplacing her voting papers and chasing up the Election Helpline she opted to vote at the local Wahi Pooti.
“ I was so grateful the wahi pooti was set up or else I would have missed out.” Mate said, “My vote could have been the deciding factor to ensure the right person gets in. I am passionate about Ngati Porou and it’s my duty to vote.”
“I called my children to make sure they had voted, and they said they had already done so online”, Mate said.
It has been great throughout this Election process to see passionate Ngati Porou people like Mate, who care about the future of our Iwi and are pro- active in making sure their vote counts.
The final Election results won’t be known until Tuesday 20th of October, after the provisional votes have been verified. The Chief Returning Officer from Electionz will formally contact the candidates at 12noon with the results. Then, at 2pm that afternoon an official panui will be made to Ngati Porou via our website www.ngatiporou.com and also on Radio Ngati Porou to announce who our fourteen newly Elected Representatives will be for the next four years.
In closing, a few words of thanks to the TRONPnui staff who did all the work to promote the election, ‘man’ the polling booths and every job in between. Even in my very brief time here I have seen that this work has been non-stop and, at times, very complex. Overall, we’ve ensured an open, fair and strong process on behalf of all Ngati Porou voters.
I would like to wish all the candidates the best of luck and thank them all once again for putting themselves forward for such important roles in representing their Rohenga Tipuna and all of Ngati Porou.
Nga mihi nui ki a koutou, ki a tatau katoa.
Herewini Te Koha
Chief Executive Officer
Te Runanganui o Ngati Porou
