Wellington Citizens' Association

The Citizens' Association (CA), was a right-leaning local body electoral ticket in Wellington, New Zealand. It was formed in 1911 by merging the selection process of council candidates of several civic interest groups and business lobby groups. Its main ambitions were to continue to control the Wellington City Council, reduce local spending and deny left-leaning Labour Party candidates being elected.

History

The Citizens' Association was founded in 1911 under the name of the Wellington Citizens League, created with the goal of electing "desirable" candidates to the Wellington City Council to represent the needs of businessmen in the local community.^[2] In 1921 the Citizens League was renamed as the Civic League a name it would retain until changing names again to the Citizens' Association in the lead up to the 1933 civic elections. The body grew from the earlier Civic League organisation and also absorbed the Greater Wellington Electors' Association and Ratepayers' Association to jointly nominate and endorse candidates for local government. It picked candidates from applicants for Wellington's mayoralty, City Council, Harbour Board and Hospital Board. Despite several publicly embarrassing selection controversies (such as in 1950, 1956 and 1965),^[3] the Citizens' Association controlled the council from the time of its inception until finally losing its decades long majority in 1986 when the Labour Party won its first ever majority with Labour's Jim Belich also capturing the mayoralty for Labour.^[4] It was less successful in controlling the Mayoralty particularly during the 18 year period of 1956–74 when Labour's Frank Kitts was Mayor.^[5]

Electoral esults

Council seats

Year	no. of seats won	% of seats	±
1911	10 / 15	66.6%	10
1913	9 / 15	60.0%	1
1915	13 / 15	86.6%	4
1917	14 / 15	93.3%	1
1919	9 / 15	60.0%	5
1921	13 / 15	86.6%	4
1923	13 / 15	86.6%	0
1925	12 / 15	80.0%	1
1927	11 / 15	73.3%	1
1929	12 / 15	80.0%	1
1931	11 / 15	73.3%	1
1933	7 / 15	46.6%	4
1935	9 / 15	60.0%	2
1938	9 / 15	60.0%	0
1941	15 / 15	100.0%	6
1944	15 / 15	100.0%	0
1947	15 / 15	100.0%	0
1950	9 / 15	60.0%	6
1953	9 / 15	60.0%	0
1956	12 / 15	80.0%	3
1959	12 / 15	80.0%	0
1962	11 / 15	73.3%	1
1965	10 / 15	66.6%	1
1968	10 / 15	66.6%	0
1971	8 / 15	53.3%	2
1974	12 / 18	66.6%	4
1977	10 / 18	55.5%	2
1980	10 / 18	55.5%	0
1983	9 / 18	50.0%	1
1986	9 / 21	42.8%	0
1989	9 / 21	42.8%	0
1992	6 / 21	28.5%	3
1995	4 / 18	22.2%	2

Notes

References

• Betts, G.M. (1970). Betts on Wellington: A City and its Politics. Wellington: A. H. & A. W. Reed Ltd. ISBN 0 589 00469 7.
• Franks, Peter; McAloon, Jim (2016). Labour: The New Zealand Labour Party 1916–2016. Wellington: Victoria University Press. ISBN 978-1-77656-074-5.