HE’S BACK! KON TO RETURN AS DARWIN’S LORD MAYOR
TERRITORIANS GET THEIR VOTE ON FOR COUNCIL ELECTIONS
TURNOUT for the Northern Territory’s local government elections on Saturday was slightly up, bucking long-term trends.
But results for some tight contests might not be known for a fortnight, with preferences likely to determine who becomes mayor in some key races.
Around 58.7 per cent of eligible voters had their ballots counted on Saturday, with some postal and declaration votes hoped to push the turnout above 60 per cent. The result is well above 2017’s total turnout of 58.5 per cent.
Roughly 4000 of the 8000 postal votes have so far been returned to the Electoral Commission, but are yet to be added to each candidate’s tallies.
NT Electoral Commissioner Iain Loganathan said the result bucked the trend of previous elections.
“Turnout is probably on par or slightly better than 2017. We still don’t know how many postal votes will eventually come in over the next two weeks,” Mr Loganathan said.
“There has been a gradual decline in turnout in local government elections.
“I’m pleased the trend is up but there’s still a long way to go.”
Mr Loganathan said queues at polling booths on Saturday were long as a result of the higher turnout, with residents in Nightcliff lining up for up to 30 minutes to cast their vote.
“It’s just one of those things – sometimes democracy takes a little bit of time,” he said.
Preliminary counts conducted on Saturday night produced mixed results, with the results of some key contests already certain while others remained unknown.
“In Darwin and Palmerston, the incumbent mayors ( Kon Vatskalis and Athina Pascoe-Bell) have significant leads,” Mr Loganathan said.
“The Mayor contest is certainly a lot closer in Litchfield and in Katherine. In those contests it will come down to preferences. In that case, we’ll have to wait until those votes come in and then those preferences will be distributed.”
Final preference tallies will be known on September 10.
Litchfield’s mayoral race looks set for a three-way showdown, with Maree Bredhauer (1745 votes) leading, followed by Doug Barden (1559) and Andrew Mackay (1301).
Each of Litchfield’s three wards will elect two councillors each, but none of the candidates appear to have enough votes to win a seat without preferences.
In Katherine, Kevin South (1055 votes) was in the lead over incumbent mayor Lis Clark (920 votes)
Katherine voters only had months rather than years to assess whether to re-elect Ms Clark, who was only appointed mayor in December 2020
after her popular predecessor Fay Miller resigned.
Preferences will play a crucial role in determining whether Mr South or Ms Clark will be elected mayor.
There are 15 candidates for six councillor positions in Katherine.
In Alice Springs, mayoral frontrunner Jimmy Cocking attracted 30.4 per cent of the vote but will need preferences to see off any challengers.
In the race for Barkly Regional Council, Jeffrey McLaughlin (678 votes) was well ahead of Hal Ruger (344) in a four-horse race for mayor.
The Greens meanwhile have celebrated a strong performance from their three candidates: Morgan Rickard in Darwin’s Chan Ward, Emily Webster in Alice Springs and Dianne Stokes in the Barkly’s Patta Ward.
A spokesman for the progressive party said they were happy with the result, even though a final result for all three was less than clear.
“The Greens candidates are looking good in Darwin and the Barkly and our candidate Emily Webster in Alice has a very good chance, but it will depend on preferences.”