The Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust elections will be held in November this year.

They will be held a month after the local body elections.

Trust chairman Stewart Edward has said he will stand for re-election.

Trust manager Tony Gill says 'all current trustees are eligible to stand again but, apart from Stewart (who has verbally advised me that he will be standing), I am unaware of who will be putting their name forward.”

Nominations open on August 30 and close on September 27.

The trust has had a new look to it this term.

In 2016, the public voted in a raft of new chums, replacing long standing fixtures Grahame Hall (retired), Lyall Thurston, Paul East and Trevor Maxwell.

In came Edward, Tamati Coffey, Merepeka Raukawa Tait and the late Beatrice Yates to join Jo-Anne Grouw and Sandra Kai Fong.

Bea Yates died last year with the trust deciding against filling the vacancy.

A total of 13,175 votes were cast in the trust election, 28.29 per cent of 46,574 eligible voters. A total of 1610 votes were received online, 12.22 per cent of the total vote.

With 5125 votes, Coffey topped the poll.

In line with a desire for change, the present trustees have voted for a limit of three terms to be phased in over a period, hence Tony Gill's comments all current trustees are available for re-election.

Over the years the public at times saw little difference between the trust and the former Rotorua District Council, elected members of which it was thought took advantage their council profiles for trust election.

In these cases, councillors who also stood for the trust overlaid the council label with trust applications on existing hoardings at midnight of the local body elections to avoid infringing the Act.

Last term, an astonishing 44 nominations were received for the six trustee positions.

This followed public apathy in 2013 when no one challenged the sitting trustees.

Over the years, two referenda were held over term limits.

Though results were not binding, in 2016 75 per cent of respondents indicated a maximum number of terms trustees may serve on which current trustees acted.

Nominations open on August 30, running through to September 27.

Key election dates:

■ August 1 – Candidate information evening.

■ August 30 – Nominations open.

■ September 27 – Nominations close.

■ November 1 – Voting packs distributed.

■ November 23 – Voting closes (at noon).