HERE WE GO: First-time voter Thomas Dunshea pictured in Armidale on Saturday. Photo: Armidale Express
ARMIDALE-DUMARESQ Council, with 10 seats up for grabs, looks like it will have a fair representation across party lines.
Armidale-Dumaresq mayor Peter Ducat, like several mayors across the New England and North West this time, did not run in this election.
The Greens (1503 votes) and the Liberal Party (1604 votes) have each met the quota to have a candidate elected to council in the above-the-line voting
carried out.
Six batches of candidates elected to be grouped – in order they are Group A (The Greens), Group B (independents), Group C (Liberal Party), Group D, Group E and Group F.
Group A (The Greens) includes councillor on the previous council Dorothy Robinson, Peter O’Donohue, Julia McCosker, Iain McKay and Pat Schultz.
Group C (Liberal Party) includes Margaret O’Connor, James Ellis, Danjela Johnson, Kerood Gream and Taden Kelliher.
Then, there’s an “ungrouped” batch of candidates totalling nine people including a swathe of councillors from the previous council – Rob Richardson, Christopher Halligan, Colin Gadd, Jim Maher and Allan Mitchell.
Mr Maher, on 1356, “has a quota in his own right”, an Electoral Commission of NSW spokesman said yesterday.
The “ungrouped” group has met the quota ratio for four seats on council.
Group B (Laurie Bishop and Stephen Griffith) and Group F (comprising councillor on the previous council Herman Beyersdorf, Elva Taylor, Warren Roberts, Josephine Hillard and Tony Ramsay) had also each met the quota for one person to be elected to council.
The AEC spokesman said there was 16,272 people enrolled to vote in the Armidale-Dumaresq Council area, with 11,326 formal votes counted as at 3.50pm yesterday.
Informal votes counted by yesterday afternoon were 1156, with progressive ordinary votes standing at 12,482.
Another count is scheduled for Friday.