Informal did extremely well in Saturday's Council Elections for MidCoast. With around 12.5% of the total votes cast on the day, it has beaten every group apart from Country Labor! Is this a reflection on the massive voting paper, a lack of knowledge of the candidates or perhaps even a lack of interest and disconnection from the process? (By comparison, in the 2012 Council elections informal was only 6.75% in Great Lakes, 3.2% in Gloucester and 10% in Taree.)
While counting is still under way, it is clear already that former Great Lakes Deputy Mayor Len Roberts has succeeded in becoming one of the eleven MidCoast councillors. Based on the latest count he is likely to be joined by:
- former Great Lakes Mayor Jan McWilliams (Group K, Tuncurry);
- Troy Fowler (Liberal, Forster)
- two Country Labor candidates, Dr David Keegan (Pampoolah) and Clair Pontin (Hallidays Point);
- Brad Christensen (Group B, Harrington);
- Peter Epov (Group D, Strathcedar)
Currently best placed behind these are
- Kathryn Bell (Group G, Taree) and
- Jim Morwitch (Group K, Forster)
The remaining two positions will probably take some time to be decided with several candidates still in the mix including Cliff Hoare (Group A, Harrington), Joshua Crowther (Group B, Rainbow Flat), Karen Hutchinson (Group F, Booral), David West (Group H, Brimbin) and Katheryn Smith (Group I, Gloucester).
There are quite a few postal and pre-poll votes still to be counted before preference allocation begins.
However, it would appear that the Manning region (former Greater Taree Council area) has done particularly well out of this election and that, as expected, the Gloucester region has but a slim chance of gaining any representation. One can only hope that all Councillors take an holistic view in their decision making and do not simply focus their attention on the north.
