This year, you are being asked to vote for the candidates you believe will do the best job in shaping the future of this city, district, and region - and making the hard choices in doing so.

To help you make the most informed and educated decision these local body elections, SunLive will provide in-depth, fair, and balanced coverage of election issues and candidates.

All voting documents must be at the council before voting closes, at 12pm on October 8. Preliminary results will be available as soon as possible afterwards.

SunLive is committed to ensuring all readers and members of the community have the information needed to make an informed choice.

As part of this commitment, SunLive is providing a free-to-view online resource featuring all of the candidates standing for Tauranga City Council, Western Bay of Plenty District Council, and BOP Regional Council.

Supplied by the candidates themselves, this is your reference to find out who these people are, why they are standing, and what they are standing for.

This page will be available to view throughout the election campaign process; voting runs from September 16 to October 8.

To view Tauranga City Council candidates click here.

To view Western Bay of Plenty candidates click here.

To view Bay of Plenty Regional Council candidates click here.

To view Bay of Plenty District Health Board candidates click here.

SunLive will not be accepting comments on this page.