THE USA election result is out of the way and now we come to the big ones, the outcome of the local council elections decided in South Gippsland at 3pm on Thursday, November 7 and in Bass Coast at 5.30pm.
Who has won? Now we know!
In Coastal Promontory ward of the South Gippsland Shire Council; Scott Rae, Sarah Gilligan and Steve Finley have been declared successful from Emma McKay and Michael Poore.
In Strzelecki ward, it's Nathan Hersey, Bron Beach and John Kennedy from Jenni Keerie and Jim Forbes.
And in Tarwin Valley ward John Schelling and Clare Williams have come through as expected with the third place in the ward covering the population centres of Leongatha and Mirboo North going to Brad Snell from Don Hill, Rosemary Cousin, Kathleen Murray and Aaron Taylor.
The contest for the third and final position in Tarwin Valley was revealed as one of the closest across the two shires with Mirboo North small business operator Brad Snell securing enough of the preferences from John Schelling, Clare Williams, Aaron Taylor and Kathleen Murray to be just 110 votes ahead of Rosemary Cousin, 1148 to 1038, in a three-way go to stay in the count.
Had Rosemary benefitted by a swing of little more than 50 votes, it would have been herself and former mayor Don Hill going forward, with Ms Cousin in good shape to pick up preferences from Mr Snell and win the seat. But it wasn't to be and after Ms Cousin's preferences were distributed, it was Brad Snell who got to the quota of 1678 votes and joined John Schelling and Clare Williams as representatives for the people of Tarwin Valley.
Few of the candidates turned up for the declaration of the polls, among those that did come were Mayor Cr Clare Willliams and new Strzelecki councillor Bron Beach, both successfully re-elected and elected respectively, and former councillor Rosemary Cousin who was unsuccessful in her bid to take back a place in Tarwin Valley.
Ms Cousin had a few passing remarks however.
She said the system of postal voting failed to engage the community who responded in disappointingly low numbers. And the move by the VEC to clean up the voters' roll by eliminating absentee ratepayers who didn't apply to vote also reduced participation. She suggests there should be more "meet the candidate" events next time around and more effort made to engage all ratepayers and residents.
Here are the turnout figures (compared with 2020):
- Coastal Promontory turnout numbers: Of the 8227 (7949) eligible to vote in Coastal Promontory just 7001 - 85.1% (6188 - 77.85%) turned out of which there were 6831 (6027) formal votes and 170 (161) informal votes.
- Strzelecki turnout numbers: Of the 8562 (9860) eligible to vote in Strzelecki just 7425 - 86.7% (8135 - 82.51%) turned out of which there were 7236 (7815) formal votes and 189 (320) informal votes.
- Tarwin Valley turnout numbers: Of the 8085 (9562) eligible to vote in Tarwin Valley just 6910 - 85.5% (7991 - 83.53%) turned out of which there were 6708 (7684) formal votes and 202 (307) informal votes.
Bass Coast
Update HERE
In Bass Coast, the count appears to be a lot closer. Results here will be announced at 5.30pm on Thursday, November 7.
In Bunurong ward, Brett Tessari (2428 first preferences) has clearly been elected but the other two positions are up for grabs with Mat Morgan (1784), Leticia Laing (1532) and Meg Edwards (1216) appearing to be in the running. The preferences of Caitlyn Robertson (614), Pru Scholtes (422), Brian Robinson 726), Eddie Halaijian (306) and Les Larke (512) will be key.
In the Island ward, Ron Bauer (3220 first preferences) is a clear winner but any one of Marnie Chadwick (1193), Tracey Bell (1129), David Rooks (1096) or Tim O’Brien (1290) could take the other two seats with the preferences of Darrell Silva (688) and John Trigt (915) important.
In Western Port Jon Temby and Rochelle Halstead look to be clearly in with possibly Jan Thompson taking the third spot from Glenda Minty, Brian O’Farrell and Nikole Shellekens. Latest first prefernce numbers not available.
Again, there appears to be a low turnout of voters in Bass Coast. Final results will be known by 5.30pm.