Mike McRoberts to moderate ‘Mix & Mingle’ event
By Gurbir Singh:
All eight contenders aspiring to be Hamilton’s next Mayor – James Casson, Jack Gielen, Louise Hutt, Andrew King, Lisa Lewis, Angela O’Leary, Paula Southgate and Mike West will be attending the city council’s much-hyped mayoral debate tomorrow.
The $15,000 council-funded, 1.5 hour-long debate will be moderated by Newshub journalist and anchor, Mike McRoberts to ensure impartiality.
Council is expecting a large turnover judging from the 612 people who have already registered their interest in the event on Facebook and 117 have confirmed as attending.
People have the chance to put questions to candidates via the council’s Facebook page and the event will be live streamed: yourcityelections.co.nz facebook.com/hamiltoncitycouncil and twitch.tv/hamiltoncitycouncil.
Prior to the debate that is expected to cost ratepayers $15,000, there will be an open forum session, the Candidate Café to allow the public to engage with all 39 East and West Wards candidates who have also been invited. Candidates have been encouraged to set up a booth to promote themselves.
The debate and Candidate Café is an extension of the next instalment of the Council’s Your Neighbourhood information expo series, where you can talk to Council staff about projects happening across the city.
The venue of all the events is the Claudelands Event Centre, starting 4pm
Hamilton City Council is the only council across the country to host this type of a candidate event. Even though the decision and costs have been slightly controversial, yet the council’s aim is to improve the city’s dismal voter turnout by better engaging the community.
At the last election, Hamilton had the lowest voter turnout of all metropolitan centres with just over 30 per cent of eligible voters and the fourth lowest of all councils. This turnout was well below the national average of 42 per cent.
Click below to read views of some of the Mayoral candidates, published exclusively by NewsViews: https://www.newsviews.co.nz/category/election/
