Recount in Mick Curran, Bruce Devereaux election fight at Gympie Qld

The answer to who has won the hotly contested fight for Division 4 of the Gympie council will likely not be known for several more days as counting continues to drag on.

The battle between incumbent councillor Bruce Devereaux and former mayor Mick Curran for the Division 4 seat is unlikely to be resolved until after Easter, with a recount requested.

Former mayor Mick Curran’s possible return to Gympie Regional Council will not be confirmed until after Easter, with a recount to be carried out in the division he is trying to win from incumbent Bruce Devereaux.

Mr Curran, who lost his mayoral seat to Glen Hartwig in 2020, was leading Mr Devereaux by 90 votes on the first preference count at the time of the last update on the Electoral Commission Queensland website.

Preferences from Rae Gate, Michael Torrens, and Wayne Boyd will be the deciding factor on who wins the tussle.

If Mr Curran wins it will be his second stint as a councillor.

He previously served as the representative for Division 7 before winning the mayoral by-election in 2015.

Unofficial figures on the Electoral Commission Queensland website shows Mr Curran received his strongest support at early voting, and the Gympie City booth.

His support was at least 5 per cent higher than Mr Devereaux’s in these booths.

A recount in Division 5 has led to newcomer Allona Lahn likely winning the seat, after more than 200 votes in her favour were found to have not been included on the official online tally. Picture: Christine Schindler

In contrast Mr Devereaux’s support at the Horseshoe Bend booth was almost 18 percentage points higher.

In is not yet clear of the exact distribution of preferences.

The recount follows one for Division 5 on Wednesday, which turned the battle for the seat on its head.

Allona Lahn is expected to win the seat after more than 200 votes for her were reportedly found to have been counted, but not included in the initial online tally.

For almost a week incumbent Dan Stewart was shown on the ECQ website to be in front; the tally pushed him into second place, and preferences are understood to have heavily favoured Ms Lahn.

Councillor Warren Polley has been returned to his Division 7 seat for a second term.

The seat has not yet been officially declared.

In other election battles across the region, Division 7 incumbent Warren Polley is returning to his seat for a second term after beating a field which included citizen of the year Sean Connelly, former mayoral candidate Tim Jerome, and former divisional candidate Donna Reardon.

The Division 1 and 3 seats remained undeclared as of 3pm Thursday.

Incumbent Jess Milne remains in front of former deputy mayor Hilary Smerdon by 26 votes, and Shane Warnes is 138 votes ahead of Charlie Horne in the duel for Division 3.

Each division had only two candidates.

Incumbent Mayor Glen Hartwig, incumbent councillor Dolly Jensen, and newcomers Warren McEwan and Gordon Maudsley were declared winners of the mayoral, and Division 2, 6 and 8 seats this week.