Tom Campbell has taken the early lead in the race for the Invercargill City mayoralty, following the publishing at 1pm of the city's first local body election progress results.

Campbell currently has 6,064 votes, followed by Alex Crackett with 4,167 votes, however it is too early to announce any clear winners yet.

Progress results have also confirmed the first members of Invercargill City Council, with polls in this year’s local body elections now officially closed.

Invercargill City Council Deputy Electoral Officer Michael Morris said sitting Councillors Steve Broad and Alex Crackett had been re-elected, having received 9,589 and 8,350 votes

respectively.

However with 2,256 ordinary votes and 354 Special Votes yet to be counted, it was not yet possible to determine the outcome for all of the Council candidates, or the winner of the race for the top job, he said.

Meanwhile, of the seven candidates standing for the Bluff Community Board, the top five at the time of the Progress Vote return were Jo Eruera, Justin Sutherland, Ray Fife, Haylee

Simeon, and Frazer Murdoch.

For the Invercargill Licensing Trust, which has six vacancies, the leading contenders were Paddy O’Brien, Suzanne Prentice, Angela Newell, Graham Hawkes, Sheree Carey, and Nick

Jeffrey.

Progress results include all votes cast up until late on Friday, 10 October, however this does not include the final votes cast yesterday or any of the votes returned to the ballot box

today. Progress results also do not include Special Votes.

Preliminary results were expected on Sunday, and would include all votes except for special votes, Morris said.

It had been pleasing to see the community engaged in local body elections, he said.

“Our community is a passionate and vocal one, and it was great to see that translate into a turnout of voters who were motivated to help guide their city through the next three years."

CLICK HERE for the full list of Invercargill City Council’s Progress Results.

Meanwhile in the Gore District, with 85 % of the votes counted, Ben Bell (2917 votes) is currently leading the mayoral race over Nicky Davis (1270).

Southland District provisional results are not expected until 3pm.