Wellington's new Mayor Andy Foster says he would be surprised if a vote recount changed anything.
It comes as former Mayor Justin Lester has decided to apply for a recount, as there ended up being just 62 votes separating the pair.
Foster, whose campaign was partially bankrolled by filmmaker Sir Peter Jackson, says the recount is "not particularly helpful".
"Electoral officials would have taken a great deal of care. They will be massively embarrassed if there was a significant change."
Foster had 27,364 votes, while Lester finished with 27,302.
- Wellington mayoralty: Andy Foster defeats Justin Lester
- As it happened: New Zealand local body election results 2019
- Late surge in voters showing up to cast ballots in person
He says on a "human level" it's been quite a challenging week.
"I've tried to get hold of the electoral officials because I'm sure they've taken a great deal of care, given the result was relatively close... The advice I've had is this will probably cost the city about $100,000."
Lester is expected to apply for the recount early next week. Earlier in the week he was joking on Twitter about possible new career options, including 'chief rat trapper' and 'capybara tamer'.
"Might not quite be over yet," he tweeted on Friday.
Foster says the recount is a distraction from what's he's supposed to be doing.
"I'm going to be busy getting on with getting the council up-and-running and starting on the work programme I think people want us to get stuck into."
Political commentator Bryce Edwards told Stuff the recount was unlikely to change the result, and would make Lester "look worse". He suggested Lester instead move on and see if the Labour Party was interested in running him in an electorate at next year's general election.
Newshub.
