• This story, first published on 16th August, has been updated to reflect additional nominations that were not available to us at the time it was written.

There's strong interest in the south's local elections with four people seeking the Invercargill Mayoralty and 28 people vying for 12 seats on the city council, while in neighbouring Southland District, three people are contesting the mayoralty and there will be an election in every ward.

Nominations closed at midday on Friday. The elections will be held on October 12.

Gore District Mayor Tracy Hicks looks to have been return unopposed. There will be elections for the Gore ward where six people have put their hand up for the five available spots and and for council at large with four people seeking three available seats.

Interest is also hot in the Southern District Health Board elections with 11 people contesting just three available seats in the Southland constituency. The Southern DHB has been in the hands of a commissioner since 2015 when then Health Minister Jonathan Coleman sacked the board, citing poor financial performance. This year's hopefuls include some former board members, along with a host of new faces.

Incumbent Invercargill Mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt has put his hat in the ring again. He faces challenges from his current deputy Becs Amundsen, former deputy Darren Ludlow and newcomer Steve Chernishov.

Southland Mayor Gary Tong is seeking a third term and will face off against Tim Hanna and Don Byers.

In stark contrast to the last local government elections three years ago, every one of the five Southland District Council wards will require an election this year. The community boards have also garnered significantly more attention than in the past. The standouts are Fiordland where 10 people are standing for six positions and Stewart Island/Rakiura where 12 people are contesting six seats.

The exceptions are Oraka Aparima Community board which was three short of the six required at the time of writing, Tuatapere Te Waewae which was one short of the six needed, Wallacetown Toetoe two short of the seven required, and Makarewa, which appears to have no takers for the two vacancies.

At Environment Southland (Southland Regional Council) 13 people are seeking six seats representing the Invercargill-Rakiura constituency. Elections will also be required for the Hokonui, Western and Fiordland seats.

The Invercargill Licensing Trust's six seats are being chased by 11 hopefuls, including Steven Nally, head brewer and managing director of Invercargill Brewery for 18-years before it went into receivership in March last year, who has announced he and Invercagill City Council hopeful Alton McDonald will campaign together on a single-issue platform: "Does Invercargill want a referendum on licensing trust control?"

Only two of the Mataura Licensing Trust's seven wards will require elections after the minimum number of nominations were received.

• Information is complete at the time of publishing, however, it is possible that some nominations are still to be processed by returning officers. If that is the case, these will be updated in our Elections 2019 section as they are made available.
• See who is standing here: Nominations