There's an election coming up in Christchurch. But don't worry if you haven't really been paying attention—it seems no one has. Not only are the voters apathetic, there's hardly anyone vying to become mayor or even to win a council seat.

You might think that five years on from the massive earthquake, which wiped out much of the central city and sank whole suburbs, people might give a shit about who's going to be their representative. They don't.

But they should. Residents and businesses alike have spent years battling the Earthquake Commission (EQC) and insurance companies over quake-wrecked property. Tensions between the Christchurch City Council and earthquake recovery minister Gerry Brownlee were an open secret for years. The now-defunct Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) was arguably the most detested organisation to ever grace the city.

Who you vote into power on the local level matters as much as, if not more than the national level. That being said, there are only three candidates vying to become Christchurch's mayor. Here we go:

First up, there's perennial candidate "Tubby" Hansen, who's run in every election since 1999. His platform back then was that "electronic schizophrenia" was the most "nefarious racket" in Christchurch.

"This involves transmitting and receiving bugging of car and home heaters, broadcasting on the same frequencies as radios, the use of long range microwave microphones and using hospital type scanners to X-ray people's homes," Tubby said.

This time around Tubby announced that, if elected mayor, he would demand all emergency services workers, medical professionals, and social workers go on a course in modern electronics, rays, lasers, and masers. Half would be failed deliberately and be forced to work a pick and shovel job for the water works.

Candidate number two is veteran activist John Minto. In the 1980s, Minto was an instrumental part of the anti-apartheid Springbok Tour protests. He's now a high school physics teacher, and a committed political wannabe.

Minto ran and lost in both the 2013 Auckland mayor race and the 2014 national elections—when he was campaigning as an MP for the Internet-Mana Party. This year, his bid for Christchurch mayor is focussed on keeping the city's assets, cleaning up the rivers, and free public transport.

As it stands neither Hansen nor Minto stands much of a chance. Hansen has no hope and Minto was crushed in the mayoral debates by current Christchurch mayor Lianne Dalziel.

A former Labour Party MP, Dalziel has 23 years of experience in parliament and a mayoral term behind her. She's seasoned. Seemingly so sure of her chances at re-election, Dalziel hasn't even bothered to put up election hoardings.

She wasn't certain she would seek re-election. Back in April, she spoke about the drain of the job in a candid radio interview. It spiralled into breathless coverage of a "mentally exhausted" mayor. But Dalziel's views seem to reflect those of her disengaged city.

"There's apathy of course. That sense that you can't influence what's happening in the city," she concedes now. In the end, Dalziel says it was the public response to that radio interview that convinced her to run again. "People were shocked. They were anxious that I wouldn't run again."

If you thought competition for the top job was sparse, disinterest in becoming a city councillor is staggeringly low. Four of the 16 electorate wards are going uncontested. Deputy Mayor Vicki Buck and city councillors Jamie Gough, Tim Scandrett, and Andrew Turner are all running unchallenged in Riccarton, Fendalton, Cashmere, and Banks Peninsula.

Another four wards—Spreydon, Linwood, Burwood and Innes—will likely remain represented by incumbent councillors.

Political agitator and radio host James Dann says the lack of participation in the Christchurch elections is dispiriting and remarkable given the city's issues surrounding the earthquake rebuild. Especially galling for Dann is that no one has challenged Jamie Gough after the councillor's string of drunken blunders in the last couple of years.

There was the run in with a taxi driver who was so incensed Gough couldn't pay his fare that he took him to the police station. By way of explanation, Gough admitted he'd mixed antibiotics with alcohol. The councillor was thenkicked out of the Cancer Society's charity ball for being too drunk. That one cost him his position as board chairman of Vbase, a city council-owned event company.

The clincher though had to be when Gough was shamed on social media for his drunken antics and appalling behaviour towards some women at a bar in upmarket Merivale. After this, he apologised and announced he would get professional help to deal with his booze issues.

But Jamie Gough's family is rich. The kind of rich that comes with family feuds over money and power, which play out in the High Court. The Goughs are also intimately involved in rebuilding the inner city. And still, no one has challenged him in Fendalton, which weirdly has the third-highest voter turnout of the 16 wards so far.

Dalziel is kind in her view of Gough, saying he has settled down after a tumultuous period and recognised his problem. "People really like Jamie and are prepared to forgive his mistakes."

The Christchurch election is on track for a voter turnout just tipping 40 percent—down from just over 42 percent in 2013. Back in 2010, 52 percent of locals turned out to vote.

James Dann is not surprised."Voter turnout has been dropping for a generation," he says. If there'd been a real contest, turnout might be higher but, like most people, Dann's fully aware that "Dalziel will win in a canter."

Add the uncontested wards to the mix and "a lot of people are throwing up their hands and saying 'it doesn't matter'," says Dann.

Daniel is digital media lecturer at the New Zealand Broadcasting School. Follow him on Twitter