MILLEWA farmer Ian Arney has been the big mover as voting in this year’s Mildura local government election continues.
Sitting in sixth position after the counting of just over 5000 of 40,000 votes on Wednesday night, Mr Arney has leap-frogged into second spot with more than 11,000 first preference votes now counted.
Long-serving councillor Glenn Milne topped the polls with 1843 first preference votes, well ahead of Mr Arney with 966, at the close of counting Thursday.
Mr Arney’s rapid rise up the polls may have been driven by the arrival of postal votes from the outer grain-growing region where he farms.
Contender Liam Wood continued to poll well and was in third place with 965 votes as did Stefano de Pieri, who dropped one spot to be in fourth with 896 votes.
Current councillors Jason Modica (867 votes), Mark Eckel (844) and Helen Healy (685) filled fifth to seventh positions respectively, ahead of Jodi Reynolds (620) and Cyndi Power (597), who ousted Katie Clements (558) in the top nine.
Troy Bailey (407) has held on to 11th position, equal on votes with Kym Kingdon, and ahead of Dean Wickham (353), Julie Waters (334), Domenico Capogreco (311), Gavin Sedgmen (309), Paul O’Neill (185) and Angy Fikaris (182).
The Mildura election is determined by proportional counting, whereby candidates must receive a proportion of votes known as a “quota” to be elected.
Any votes they receive over the quota are then passed on to other candidates according to voters’ preferences.
If no candidate achieves the quota, or if there are still vacancies after all the votes over the quota have been passed on, the candidate with the fewest votes is excluded.
Their votes are passed on to other candidates according to voters’ preferences and the process is repeated until all vacancies are filled.
The result of the Mildura election is expected to be known mid-next week.
