Constituency 2023 Provisional

This dataset is the provisional 2023 dataset for Constituency. The final 2023 layer is scheduled to be published on 8 December 2022 as part of the annual boundary release.The intention of providing this provisional dataset is to make available the boundaries that will be used for the local body elections being held in October 2022.This dataset is the provisional set of regional council constituency boundaries for 2023 as defined by the regional councils and Local Government Commission but maintained by Stats NZ (the custodian). This version contains 58 constituencies (excluding Area Outside Regional Council Constituency).Constituencies are established under the Local Electoral Act 2001 and result from the division of a region for electoral purposes.If a regional council decides to have a Māori constituency, the constituencies within the council are known as generalconstituencies and Māori constituencies.Constituencies are divisions of regional council areas. They are defined at meshblock level, and do not coincide with the statistical area 1 (SA1) geography or the statistical area 2 (SA2) geography. They are created, based on population, to be the voting areas within councils. Constituencies are required to reflect communities of interest. Their boundaries, so far as is practicable, coincide with those of territorial authorities or wards. The boundaries of constituencies may be reviewed before each three-yearly local government election. Regional councils must review their representation arrangements at least once every six years. The provisions for such reviews are in the Local Government Act 2002.Names are provided with and without tohutō/macrons. The name field without macrons is suffixed ‘ascii’.