MORE than three weeks after the March 28 Logan City Council election, the results are official, with Darren Power declared victorious in the race for the mayoralty.
With a record number of overall candidates nominating for the election, including eight running for the mayoralty, the official result took more than three weeks to be confirmed by the Electoral Commission of Queensland.
After stepping down from his divisional councillor role, Power secured nearly twice the votes of his nearest challenger, former federal politician Brett Raguse, taking the final preferential count 56,014 votes to 31,448.
Former mayor John Freeman was an early casualty in the count, finishing with 9,273 votes, while late nominee Sherry Heath claimed 15,635 votes.
In the 12 divisions, previous councillors Lisa Bradley (Division 1), Laurie Koranski (Division 4), Jon Raven (Division 5) were returned to the Wembley Rd chambers, leaving nine new faces to be sworn in.
Teresa Lane (Division 2), Melinda ‘Mindy’ Russell (Division 3), Tony Hall (Division 6), Tim Frazer (Division 7), Jacob Heremaia (Division 8), Scott Bannan (Division 9), Miriam Stemp (Division 10), Natalie Willcocks (Division 11) and Karen Murphy (Division 12) were all declared as new councillors at the end of counting.
With one of the lowest voter turnouts in recent history, much of which was blamed on fears surrounding the current COVID19 pandemic, it remains to be seen if fines will be levied on non-voters.
In previous elections, councillors have often chosen to waive fines for non-voting, the decision is often one of the first made by the newly-elected council.
The successful candidates are scheduled to be sworn in to their new roles on Tuesday April 21, however with many events closed to the public because of COVID19 restrictions, Logan City Council has yet to confirm public access to the meeting.
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