One down, one to go in countbacks

An electoral process to fill Ararat Rural City Council positions will continue next month after Fay Hull won a vacant seat in an electoral countback.

Victorian Electoral Office officials, who oversaw a countback of former mayor Glenda Mclean’s 2016 election votes in Ararat on Monday, will return to count votes of another former councillor, Darren Ford, on June 6.

Ms Mclean and Mr Ford resigned from the council, creating a need for the election count backs.

There had already been an electoral countback late last year when Bill Braithwaite filled a vacancy created by Paul Hooper’s resignation.

Ms Hull confirmed yesterday that she would accept her position on the council.

She topped a countback on Monday from other candidates Gary Hull, Frank Deutsch, Murray Woods and Bernardine Atkinson based on a redistribution of Ms Mclean’s 2016 election votes.

Mr Hull, Mr Deutsch, Mr Woods and Ms Atkinson remain in the mix for a council position after a countback of Mr Ford’s preference votes next month.

Ms Hull has extensive previous experience on the council and in leading the council as mayor.

The re-jigging of Ararat council positions represents the latest chapter in a drawn out saga that placed the municipality’s governance under the microscope and prompted intervention from the State Government.

Much of the community anxiety and angry debate surrounding the council stemmed from a split decision last year to remove a farm differential from a rating strategy.

The State Government launched a Commission of Inquiry into the council in August last year and in the process overturned the rating decision and installed a municipal monitor.

The council has also since used different methodology, including the use of a ‘community jury’ to help develop its latest draft rating strategy, which is on display for public comment.