Louise Evans has been elected to the ILT Board, after voting in the by-election closed at midday today.

Progress results show Ms Evans is the successful candidate with 2942 votes out of the 8261 votes which have been counted thus far.

ILT Chief Executive Chris Ramsay said he had personally called each of the candidates to notify them of the results.

“I have congratulated Louise on her successful campaign, and I, along with the rest of the ILT family, am looking forward to welcoming her to our team. It’s an exciting time for ILT, and we’re sure Louise will enjoy being part of a bright future for Invercargill which ILT is proud to have a hand in,” he said.

Deputy Electoral Officer Michael Morris said Ms Evans received approximately 1,300 more votes than the next highest-polling candidate.

“Despite some votes still needing to be counted, including 35 special votes as well as 223 votes dropped into ballot boxes today, the margin between Ms Evans and the next highest-polling candidate is larger than the amount of votes left to count,” Mr Morris said.

About 97 per cent of votes cast have been counted, and the return rate thus far has been 25.52 per cent of eligible voters.

Progress results
These results are based upon the counting of approximately 97 per cent of the returned votes.
The progress result does not include some special votes or votes returned today which are still in transit to the processing centre. Preliminary results will include votes returned on the day, but not the special votes and will be available tomorrow. Final confirmation of results, which will include special votes, will be made in the coming days.

Name	Votes
Evans, Louise	2,942
McDonald, Reece	1,625
McKenzie, Jason	1,536
Pringle, John	1,349
Thomas, Lindsay	782