If you haven’t voted in the Central Lakes Trust (CLT) trustee elections yet, it is now too late to submit voting papers by mail - but online or hand-delivered voting is still open.

Voters have until Friday (November 21) to either hand-deliver their papers to the ballot box at the CLT office at 190 Waenga Drive in Cromwell or submit their vote online.

Online voters will need to use the pin and password which was supplied with voter packs delivered earlier via mail.

CLT chair Linda Robertson said it was important locals have their say.

“CLT is a community asset and we’d like to encourage everyone from our funding region to have a say in who represents them on our board,” she said.

Nine candidates are standing for the five community-elected trustee positions: Mark Christie, Dave Currie, Kathy Dedo, Alexa Forbes, Neil Gillespie, Tony Lepper, Chris Phoon, Michael Rewi, and Trudi Webb.

The five successful candidates will join three appointed trustees in guiding how the trust’s funds are invested and how millions of dollars in community grants are distributed across Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes.

The Central Lakes Trust, founded in 2000, has distributed more than $168M back into the community and manages assets totalling nearly $600M.

Read more: Nine candidates contest five Central Lakes Trust board seats