Wellington, Oct 24 NZPA - Former Hamilton mayor Russ Rimmington is among six candidates standing for three positions on Fonterra's board of directors in an election process he has labelled bizarre.

Voting via internet, fax or post has opened for the dairy co-operative's 10,700 farmer shareholders .

The candidates are Mr Rimmington, a Cambridge dairy farmer, Bay of Plenty dairy farmer Andrea Marsh, Massey University associate professor Nicola Shadbolt and three incumbent directors Colin Armer, Stuart Nattrass and John Wilson.

Fonterra said five of the six candidates had chosen to take part in the candidate assessment panel (CAP) process this year.

Returning officer Warwick Lampp would not disclose which candidate had not fronted the panel.

"That is information pertinent to Fonterra shareholders only," he told NZPA.

While campaigning in Wanganui this week, Mr Rimmington told the Wanganui Chronicle the election rules did not allow candidates to advertise, criticise the company or the other candidates.

He said he had gone through the CAP process -- "a two-hour interview a bit like the Nuremberg trials".

The CAP panel included chairman Henry van der Heyden who he had "been slagging off for two years". The panel's ranking of candidates went out with the ballot papers.

"So from being the mayor of the fourth largest city in the country, and all those other things I have achieved, the panel ticks me off as showing no potential," Mr Rimmington told the newspaper.

Fonterra shareholders in Ward 16 (Rotorua) will also be electing their Shareholders' Councillor from candidates Greg Mitchell and John Williams.

Voting closes at 10.30am on November 16 and results will be announced later that day.

Shareholders can meet director candidates at a series of nationwide meetings from November 2-6.