Wellington mayoral candidate Ray Chung has just narrowly scraped onto the city's council.
Chung was voted onto council in 2022 and ran for mayor this year, spearheading an election ticket of council candidates named Independent Together.
He came third in the race for the mayoralty behind Andrew Little and Karl Tiefenbacher.
Final results released on Friday show he has only just made it onto council, 44.51 votes ahead of Labour's candidate, Joy Gribben, in the city's Wharangi/Onslow-Western Ward.
Both the prime minister and the opposition leader criticised Chung over an email about former mayor Tory Whanau, saying it was "absolutely disgusting" and calling it "vile and unacceptable".
Whanau had earlier rejected the contents of the email, saying it was false and contained "malicious and sexist" rumour.
Chung ran on a policy platform of a zero rates increases over three years.
When speaking to Morning Report in June he ruled out cuts to "core council activities" including "parks, swimming pools, libraries, community facilities".
But he said the size of the council's payroll was a problem.
Wellington Mayor-elect Andrew Little described the policy as not credible.
"I don't think that's at all credible, and I know look, I'm the first to say rate rises of 30% over two years is not acceptable.
"That's not credible either, and so the council has to be doing what it can to manage those rates rises."
With regard to turnout Wellington City Council said the 2025 local body elections was understood to be the highest in 30 years.
The voter return was 49.99% which was 81,574 voting papers, including special votes.
With final votes returned there was no changes to who had been elected compared to the preliminary results.
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