What happens when a Wellington councillor dies mid-term? The seat left by Tony Randle

Wellington city councillor Tony Randle has died suddenly at the weekend, RNZ reported on 9 August 2026.

Randle represented the Takapū/Northern Ward — the northern part of the city — on Wellington City Council. He was first elected in 2022 and re-elected in 2025, serving about four years in total.

Randle sat on several council committees and was appointed to the Wellington Regional Transport Committee, which helps decide how transport money is spent across the wider Wellington region. That work put him in the middle of some of the capital's biggest arguments, especially about roads, public transport, and who gets to decide the direction of the region's transport network.

Tributes have come from across the political spectrum. Infrastructure Minister and Hutt South MP Chris Bishop described Randle as a lovely man who was passionate about Wellington. Wellington council chief executive Matt Prosser called him a strong and passionate advocate for his local community.

When a councillor dies or steps down between elections, the council has to decide how to replace them. Under the Local Electoral Act 2001, the seat can be filled either by the council appointing someone or by holding a by-election — a smaller election just for that one seat. The main factor is timing: if the vacancy is within twelve months of the next scheduled local election, the council usually appoints a replacement; otherwise, a by-election is generally held. Because Randle was re-elected in 2025, the council will need to work out the right approach in the coming weeks, after formally declaring the vacancy and consulting with the mayor and other councillors.

The timing is tricky for Wellington. The council is dealing with a long-term plan — a big document that sets out the city's spending and priorities for roughly the next ten years. It is also working through changes to how water services are run, under the Government's Local Water Done Well framework, and facing ongoing money pressures from the winding-down of the Let's Get Wellington Moving transport programme and the city's infrastructure deficit — the gap between what the city needs to build or fix and what it can afford. Losing a councillor also means one fewer vote around the council table, and in a council where the mayor's support has sometimes been thin, even a single vote can make a difference.

Randle's seat on the Regional Transport Committee matters too. That group brings together councillors from across the region to coordinate transport spending and policy. The Northern Ward's seat on it carries real weight in debates about getting people out of cars and onto public transport or bikes, road capacity, and how transport funding is shared around the region. Whoever fills the vacancy will take on that responsibility.

In my view, the bigger question for Wellington is not how the seat gets filled but who ends up in it. The 2025 local election already changed the balance of the council. Losing a sitting member so soon after voters had their say means the replacement will have less of a democratic mandate than the councillor they replace. That is not a criticism of the process — it is just how mid-term vacancies work. But it means the new member will have less room to manoeuvre, especially on transport and infrastructure votes where what the Northern Ward community wants may not match what the new councillor prefers.

There is also the question of who takes over Randle's committee work. Council committee spots are not passed down automatically — the mayor assigns them in consultation with groups of councillors. A vacancy can cause a small reshuffle beyond just the one seat, especially if the person who left held a swing vote on a committee where the numbers are close. The chief executive's office will be working through that now.

Randle's death is, first and foremost, a loss for his family, the people he represented in Takapū/Northern Ward, and his colleagues around the council table. The procedural questions that follow are secondary to that. But they are real, and they will be worked through in the weeks ahead as the council gets back to the business of running the capital.