Porirua has elected just its fifth mayor in its 51-year history, with political newcomer Mike Tana winning the mayoral chains.

The result would come as a shock to many, with Tana coming into the race in August as a first-time candidate.

Speaking at 7.40pm he said he had been called by the Porirua City chief executive and told he was the mayor.

FAIRFAX NZ Mike Tana, new mayor of Porirua City.

He faced off against favourite and incumbent councillor Euon Murrell, Mike Duncan, Liz Kelly, David Watt and Gordon Marshall.

READ MORE: Mike Tana to stand for Porirua

Tana, an underdog going into the race, said he and his supporters went "out to the people", and the community came on board.

"To be honest, it was a huge climb. At the beginning I had no idea how it would happen, but we just didn't give up."

He said he felt blessed and shocked and he had been told it was a close-run race.

"It was meant to be, and I'm just chuffed."

He said he only decided to run because there was initially only one candidate - Murrell - standing.

Tana was president of the 62,000-strong Public Service Association, and a senior biosecurity adviser at the Ministry for Primary Industries.

Before the election he said he was on the road a lot for his respective jobs and spent a lot of time in Rotorua, with his ailing father.

Tana, 50, said his experience in government, working with people in high-pressure situations, including negotiations, would serve him well as mayor.

Early in August it looked like Murrell, a real estate salesman, might be the only candidate for the mayoralty. In which case he would have claimed the chains unopposed.

However in the space of a week, all five other candidates put up their hands.

Tana, whose presidency with the PSA ended in September, will lead a table filled with new faces, with five seats left vacant from the previous term.

In the wash-up, 35.12 per cent voted in the Porirua election. This was down from 36.55 per cent in the 2013 election.

Porirua was the last council in the Wellington region to release election results.

Both Hutts, Wellington and Kapiti were done and dusted by 6pm but the folk of Porirua had to white-knuckle it even longer to find out who would be their new mayor.

At 9.45pm the official results were not yet available online.

Election day started in a slightly off-kilter way, with the Porirua City Council Facebook account linking people through to US election website Elections.com.

Donald Trump was not on ballot for Whitby - and the link was later fixed, to electionz.com.