NSW’s local governments will continue taking shape this week as the ballot count continues.
Local government elections were held on Saturday for all but one of the state’s 128 councils. Several councils could be lurching to the left after the Liberals failed to nominate 136 endorsed candidates, a debacle that could significantly reshape local government for the next four years.
In the New England, counting continues for Tamworth pre-poll, the only major booths outstanding, with postals and some declaration votes also pending. Postal votes can still be returned until September 27.
Results are pretty clear in Inverell and Glen Innes where there has been little change, a stark contrast to Gwydir and Walcha, both of which had six resignations, and in which some incumbents are not assured of keeping their seats.
The story of the election is Shawn Cain in the Liverpool Plains Shire, a newcomer to council who has secured over a quarter of the vote. His nearest rival, Charlie Simkin, is also a new comer to council and at 36 years old is likely to be the youngest councillor in the region. LPSC Mayor Doug Hawkins is not assured re-election at this point, with only 0.57 of a quota against his name – although he should be favoured by the postals.
And the ugliness of the Armidale campaign will hopefully start to settle, with the addition of Armidale’s pre-poll vote count seeing Coupland’s Group D ticket jump to over 5000 votes, or a third of all votes counted so far, and certain to control council with 4, and possibly 5 seats.
But it will be a long wait for Armidale as well as Narrabri, where things are much more unclear, with significant Below the Line votes and a huge number of candidates in both these highly contested LGAs.
While some candidates were declaring victory on Sunday, the full results won’t be announced until early October.
“The count cannot be concluded until all postal votes have been returned to the Electoral Commissioner,” a NSW Electoral Commission spokesman said in a statement.
The distribution of preferences will not take place until the 30th of September, but it is relatively quick, done by the NSW Electoral Commissioner’s computer count system, with the final results set to be declared between the 1st and 3rd of October.
We’ll do an update each day on the live blog here https://www.netimes.com.au/2024/09/14/local-government-results-live-blog/ as the count progresses.
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