UPDATED 4.13pm: Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel has romped to a second term after campainging that she has "unfinished business" in leading the post-disaster city to recovery.

The preliminary figures show Dalziel on 73,001 while Minto has received 12,533, and perennial candidate Tubby Hason remains last on 1362.

When the former long-time Labour MP Dalziel took over from Bob Parker, she vowed to get to the bottom of the city's books, during a time the city council was struggling with the fallout and recovery of the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes.

She has wrestled with a post-earthquake financial black hole and also helped secure a $603 million insurance settlement for its quake-damaged facilities - the biggest insurance pay-out in New Zealand's history.

When announcing she was standing for re-election earlier this year Dalziel said she has provided strong and stable leadership and brought "transparency and financial discipline" to the city's top job.

"It hasn't been easy, but our finances are now in order, our insurance is settled and our facilities are being restored," she said.

"We've made great progress in getting things on a strong, sustainable footing but there is more work to do."

2016 Local Government Election Coverage

Christchurch mayor runner up, John Minto, said his campaign hasn't been a complete waste of time.

He said his group, Keep Our Assets, has made it impossible for the council to sell any assets.

“The main objective we had going into the campaign was to make asset sales a major election issue and I think we’ve done that.”

Joining Mayor-elect Dalziel at the council table will be five new councillors and 11 returning councillors.

Community Board chairs Sara Templeton and Mike Davidson have won council seats for the first time.

Mrs Templeton won the council seat in the Heathcote ward with 3910 votes, while Mr Davidson won the council seat in the Papanui Ward with 3221 votes.

Anne Galloway was elected in the Halswell ward. Progress results put her 100 votes ahead of the next highest polling candidate.

In the Central Ward the founder of Rebuild Christchurch, Deon Swiggs, earned a council seat by securing 1327 of the votes cast.

VIDEO by Kurt Bayer of the NZ Herald