Mayor of Palmerston North

The Mayor of Palmerston North is the head of the municipal government of Palmerston North, New Zealand, and presides over the Palmerston North City Council. The current mayor is Grant Smith, who became mayor in a February 2015 by-election. This resulted from the resignation of Jono Naylor in October 2014 after his election to the House of Representatives. Since the 2013 election, Palmerston North is one of the few councils that uses the single transferable vote electoral system for the election of mayor.

Council elections were annually at first, and biennial since 1914. The mayor is directly elected using a single transferable vote electoral system, starting with the 2013 election, and with a first past the post system earlier.

The Borough Council was established on 12 July 1877. At the time, Palmerston North was an isolated village in the midst of a native forest that covered inland Manawatu. The population was approximately 800 people. The first elections on 9 August 1877 returned a council with nine members, including George Matthew Snelson as the first mayor. Snelson is regarded as the founding father of Palmerston North.

On 1 August 1930, Palmerston North was officially gazetted as a city, the 7th settlement in New Zealand to have reached the then-threshold of 20,000 inhabitants. With that, the Borough Council became a city council.

Jono Naylor was first elected mayor in 2007, and resigned that position after being elected to the House of Representatives in the 2014 election as a list MP for the National Party.Grant Smith was elected in his place in 2015, with the previous deputy mayor Jim Jefferies having been acting mayor in the intervening period.

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