In one of the biggest surprises of the local elections, Andy Foster has seized the Wellington mayoralty from Justin Lester.

A festival of democracy is playing out around the country today, as voting closes in our local elections and preliminary results trickle out.

Sorry about not covering everything that happened these local elections. To make it up to you, we’ve compiled all the stories we missed into an ultimate election-ending list.

Tina Nixon, Masterton mayoral candidate and chainsaw model, is leading one of the tightest campaigns rural NZ has seen. Josie Adams headed to the Wairarapa to meet her.

The design of our cities can help shape our mental health. Lucy McLean puts out a call to vote for the politicians who'll build a city where people feel more connected to community.

At the Horowhenua District Council, the last three years have been a tale of two mates against the world.

In our final local elections race briefing of 2019, Josie Adams (who is lame) visits Palmerston North (which is cool).

Two young candidates are trying to bring change to the staunchly conservative Waimakariri and Hurunui Districts in North Canterbury. But are their ideas truly new?

Good: setting up places for people to cast a special vote while they’re waiting for their dumplings. Bad: those places running out of voting papers. Hayden Donnell reports on some trouble with Auckland Council’s one stop shops.

In the final week of the local election campaign, Porirua mayor Mike Tana has been embroiled in yet another brouhaha around how he has spent public money.

We asked the two leading Auckland mayoral contenders to write a final pitch to local election voters. This is what John Tamihere wrote.