Four Gunnedah shire councillors have been voted in following Saturday’s local government election.
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Colleen Fuller (1261), Jamie Chaffey (849), Rob Hooke (835) and Murray O’Keefe (731) had all made the cut by Monday night. One other, Gae Swain, was just 10 votes shy of the threshold (719) required for election.
“I’d say she is going to be elected,” returning officer Ian Horwood said.
Next in line was John Campbell (638), Owen Hasler (441) and David Moses (419).
The remaining councillors were expected to finalised on Tuesday as Gunnedah’s final five, first preference votes from the Sydney Town Hall polling centre were tallied. Once completed, preference distribution would start.
“We decided to go to Sydney to give people that opportunity to vote there,” he said. “We were hoping to make a dent in the distribution of preferences tonight but [Sydney] has put us back a bit.”
Cr Fuller led early in the vote count and recorded 1225 first preferences in the initial few hours of counting on Saturday. The 12-year incumbent who served four as deputy mayor acknowledged her supporters.
“I’d like to thank my husband, the team who supported me and the community,” she said.
Village communities were at the core of Ms Fuller’s direction on council and she posted nearly double the total Curlewis votes (75) of next best, Rob Hooke (39).
“I have a great love for the villages,” she said.
The popular councillor intends to run for mayor “with or without” support. She said the Blackjack Creek flood mitigation would remain a high priority, as would traffic changes to Chandos St.
“There will be a discussion on the one-way street,” she said.
Ms Fuller will be joined on council by at least three news faces in Chaffey, Hooke and O’Keefe.
This first preference distribution included 4012 pre-poll votes, a few hundred votes from outlying villages and nearly 200 declaration and postal votes.
A team of about 35 bunkered down in the council’s training room to crunch the Gunnedah numbers on Saturday evening.
Returning officer Ian Horwood said Gunnedah’s independently-run election, one of only five among 81 councils state-wide which went to the ballot box, ran relatively smoothly.
