Tauranga City Councillors have opted for a new voting system for at least the next two local elections.

The plan is to replace our current system of voting, First Past the Post, with Single Transferable Voting.

With STV, voters rank candidates in order of preference.

The FPP system gives each person one vote for their preferred candidate for each vacancy.

STV is currently being used for District Health Board elections and by a number of local authorities: Dunedin City Council, Greater Wellington Regional Council, Palmerston North City Council, Kaipara District Council, Marlborough District Council, Porirua City Council, Wellington City Council, New Plymouth District Council, Ruapehu District Council and now, Tauranga City Council.

The Local Electoral Act 2001 allows local authorities to change their voting system; however, five per cent of enrolled Tauranga voters (4,532, which is five per cent of 90,628) can demand a binding poll on this proposed change by 21 February 2018.

Tauranga City Council has always used FPP. However, this system does mean a number of votes are wasted.

STV reduces the number of wasted votes and is more equitable for minority representation.

STV can be complicated the first time a voter uses it.

To make it easier for our community to understand STV we have provided information on our website: local elections.