The1971 Wellington mayoral election was part of the New Zealand local elections held that same year. In 1971, elections were held for theMayor of Wellington plus other local government positions including fifteen city councillors. The polling was conducted using the standardfirst-past-the-post electoral method.
The election saw incumbent Mayor SirFrank Kitts re-elected for a record equaling sixth term as Wellington's Mayor, defeating his main opponent, former New Zealand Farmers' Union chairmanAlex 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".[1] Deputy mayorGeorge Porter was approached to stand, but declined the nomination for "personal reasons", offering himself only for a council seat.[2] 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 theLabour 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' candidateIan 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.[3]
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