AS few as 8000 votes remained to be counted yesterday to determine the make-up of Mildura’s new-look council.
Counting paused for the Melbourne Cup public holiday with 22,307 votes counted of about 40,000 enrolled voters.
However, only about 76 per cent of those eligible to vote — about 30,000 people — did so in the previous two Mildura local government elections.
Informal votes made up about 10 per cent of votes cast in the 2016 election
The city’s longest-serving mayor, Glenn Milne, will return for a 16th year in local government, having already secured the quota required for re-election.
Based on current voting patterns, he was likely to be the only candidate to achieve a quota, meaning any votes he receives over that figure — expected to be about 2700 — will be passed on to other candidates according to voters’ preferences.
On his how to vote card, Cr Milne preferenced Ian Arney (in second place yesterday) second, Kym Kingdon (12th) third, Troy Bailey (11th) fourth, Cyndi Power (seventh) fifth, Paul O’Neill (17th) sixth, Gavin Sedgmen (16th) seventh, Angy Fikaris (18th) eighth and Julie Waters (14th) ninth.
The former mayor of seven terms remained a clear leader with 3729 first preference votes ahead of Mr Arney (2049), who now has a clear gap ahead of Liam Wood (1775), Jason Modica (1774) and Stefano de Pieri (1772).
In sixth place was Mark Eckel with 1519 votes ahead of Cyndi Power (1272), Helen Healy (1263) and Jodi Reynolds (1241), while Katie Clements remained in contention in 10th position with 1081 votes.
Likely to rely on preferences would be Troy Bailey (791 votes), Kym Kingdon (722), Dean Wickham (687) and Julie Waters (674), while Domenico Capogreco (640) and Gavin Sedgmen (613) appeared unlikely to secure enough preferences to sneak through to the top nine positions.
Paul O’Neill (378) and Angy Fikaris (327) were bringing up the rear.
In the 2016 Mildura local government election, the lowest number of first preference votes received to be elected outright was 1010 from a field of 28 candidates.
Helen Healy was subsequently elected on preferences, despite having just 676 first preference votes, after Ali Cupper’s elevation to Victorian Parliament, while Gavin Sedgmen also joined the council following the death of sitting councillor Max Thorburn after he polled 759 first preference votes.
The new council is expected to meet for the first time on November 17 to elect a new mayor and deputy mayor following the decision of Simon Clemence and Min Poole, respectively, to not seek re-election.
