Celia Wade-Brown (left), wearing the official cloak and chain of the mayor of Wellington, is given a bouquet of flowers by Kerry Prendergast, who Wade-Brown had narrowly unseated in the 2010 mayoral race. The mayor of Wellington is elected using the preferential voting system – which is officially known as STV (single transferable vote), because preferential voting is simply single transferable voting in a single-member district. In the 2010 mayoral election the incumbent, Prendergast, won more first preference votes than Wade-Brown. However, Prendergast did not have a majority of first-preference votes (she had 40.9%) and as a result the preferences of the lowest polling candidates were successively redistributed. On the fifth and final count, Wade-Brown received 50.2% of the valid votes cast and was elected.