By Doug Laing doug.laing@hbtoday.co.nzLikely deposed Napier City councillor Michelle Pyke is saying little as she clings to a slim hope of getting back for a third term. Ms Pyke, the second-highest polling candidate for the council three years ago, has provisionally come in at No 7 in the race for the six Councillor-At-Large positions on the Council, which has six other members from four localised wards. With an estimated 98 per cent of about 18,000 votes counted, Ms Pyke was 262 in arrears of fellow incumbent Keith Price, and did not appear to be relishing the possibility of clawing-back the deficit at his expense. Earlier, Mayor Bill Dalton, who had been re-elected unopposed, said he would miss Ms Pyke's "empathy with the people on struggle street." Immersed in council affairs and chair of its regulatory committee, Ms Pyke possibly suffered most from Napier's lower voter turnout, without a Mayoral election and with one ward councillor also re-elected unopposed.

Source: New Zealand Herald October 08, 2016 06:33 UTC