[4] He is the son of Alfred "Bunty" Preece QSO, a former chairman of the Chatham Islands County Council.

For this election, the Chatham Islands Council abolished STV and adopted first-past-the-post voting.

[16] On 31 January 2010, Patrick Smith resigned from the mayoralty, and was immediately succeeded as acting mayor by his deputy, Alfred Preece.

[1] Preece ran for the 2010 election and retained the mayoralty on 9 October, defeating challenger Joseph Tapara.

Although the election was officially non-partisan,[22] it was analysed within the wider context of polarised public opinion regarding the Sixth Labour Government's Three Waters reform programme.