Mackay council election: Corowa moves up while MacRae and Johnson vie for tenth place
As the mayoral candidates wait on postal votes some council frontrunners have moved up the list while others struggle to keep their seat. ROLLING COVERAGE.
Mackay
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It has been five days since council election day and voters are still waiting to find out who will be mayor as it appeared the result will not be forthcoming until the last of the postal votes are counted.
However, council counting has continued and with more than 20 per cent of the region’s votes tallied.
Here is an update on your councillor frontrunners.
Still on top with 4.39 per cent of the vote is Martin Bella, followed by Belinda Hassan with 4.17 per cent and Peter Sheedy with 4.05.
Behind Mr Sheedy is George Christensen at 3.95 per cent, who could be inched out by newcomer Namarca Corowa by the next count as he appears to be popular with voters having accrued 3.9 per cent of the vote.
Alison Jones was overtaken by Mr Corowa and may be overtaken by incumbent deputy mayor Karen May, as they remain separated by only 22 votes.
Not far behind Mrs May is Pauline Townsend with 3.8 per cent, followed closely by Fran Mann at 3.78 per cent.
Nathenea MacRae has been unseated from the tenth position by Team Greg Williamson candidate Ash-Lee Johnson.
Mrs Johnson, a former council employee, is leading Mrs MacRae by almost 150 votes, while Mrs MacRae is only separated by her closest challenger Michelle Green by 101 votes.
If current trends continue the Mackay region’s new council will be made up of two Team Greg Williamson candidates, two members from Jacko’s Team, five returning independent councillors and newcomer Peter Sheedy.
In this latest count, several Jacko team members have fallen further in the ranking, however the bottom of the pack is still mostly populated by Team Greg Williamson members, incumbents Justin Englert and Russell Seymour and several independent challengers who, barring a surge of support, will be unsuccessful in their bids for council.
The postal vote count will be complete by March 26.
It comes down to preferences and postal votes
Mayoral candidates expect to be waiting for “the next few days” on election results, as early polling indicates that the race for mayor will come down to preferences.
“It’s going to come down to a very close event in terms of counting and the distribution of preferences,” Mr Williamson said.
Laurence Bonaventura conceded his chances of winning earlier on Sunday March 17, leaving his more than 13,000 votes to go to their second preference.
If Mr Bonaventura’s how-to-vote card is any indication, this could mean a surge of votes for Jacko, whom Bonaventura listed as number 2.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean that people who voted for Laurence are going to follow his how-to-vote card,” Mr Williamson said.
“It’s pretty straight forward,” former councillor Laurence Bonaventura said.
“It is clear from the result that almost 60 per cent of voters wanted change.
“I accept that they chose a different format and that I wasn’t the change they wanted to see.”
Earlier on Sunday March 17, Mr Bonaventura had received 13,134 votes equating to 19.18 per cent of the total vote so far.
“The election will come down to the next few days,” Mr Bonaventura said adding if Jacko were elected he would “wish him and the region well in that change process.”
This election marks the end of Mr Bonaventura’s 12 year tenure on council and the beginning of his transition back to private citizenship.
When asked what he had planned for the future he indicated that he would be ruminating on that decision in the coming weeks with his family.
When asked about Mr Bonaventura’s departure from the Mackay Regional Council Mr Williamson said, “Laurence has been a great community councillor.”
“He’s been a hard worker for his constituents.
“I wish him well. ”There are now 70,842 votes counted with Greg Williamson holding the lead at 42.24 per cent of the vote, closely followed by challenger Steve Jackson with 38.58 per cent.
Mr Bonaventura held 19.18 per cent of the vote and it’s likely his voters’ second preferences will determine the outcome of the mayoral race for Mackay Regional Council.
While Jacko scrutinised late into the night at the Mackay Showgrounds, where more than 30,000 pre-polling day votes were cast, Mr Williamson enjoyed a barbecue at his home surrounded himself with friends and family including his children and wife Annette.
‘I couldn’t have done it without my wife’: Williamson
“For all of my political life, particularly the past eight years, I couldn’t have done the job that I’ve done without Annette’s support … she’s kept all of the family home fires burning that’s allowed me to a seven day a week job,” Mr Williamson said.
He said it was “really important” to have people close to him while his future was determined.
“There’s a lot of laughter here, a lot of recognition that life goes on regardless of the political outcome,” he said.
“Obviously after a huge couple of weeks, it’s been an emotional night and the results so far are understandable when you look at the fact I was looking for a third term.
“There was a very, very big and expensive campaign running against us and a somewhat dirty campaign with George Christensen’s influence.
“The filthy side of federal politics has been brought into local government.”
Mr Williamson said the Mackay First party’s campaign had influenced voters with “fake promises” and “unachievable” statements.
‘Neck and neck not a bad place to be’
“We are neck and neck right now after all that effort on their part, I think that’s not a bad place to be,” he said.
Speaking to Mr Jackson before the switch-up in rankings close to midnight, he said it was “exciting news” to have held a less than one per cent lead.
“I’m getting a lot of phone calls and support from friends,” Mr Jackson said.
However, Jacko tempered his optimism with caution, likening his lead to an experience he had playing rugby, where a game was stolen in the last minute by a member of the opposing team taking the ball and running the entire length of the field.
“I’m just going to wait until it becomes official because it’s so tight,” Mr Jackson concluded.
Polling booths shut, counting begins
Polling booths were shut at 6pm with Mr Bonaventura and Mr Jackson putting on yellow vests to scrutineer the count of more than 34,000 early votes cast at Mackay Showground’s 500 Pavilion.
It is unknown whether the third candidate, incumbent mayor Greg Williamson, had done the same at another polling booth.
Mr Williamson had stood sentry outside Mackay Northern Beaches State High School for most of the day, as almost 3000 voters poured through the glass doors to the stadium.
Joining Jacko at the Pavilion as scrutineers were several of his Mackay First teammates including Nathanea MacRae, Namarca Corowa, Keith Hicks, Kylee Stanton and Melissa Fowler as well as his campaign manager Alan McNamara and volunteer Maria, who had been “running the show”.
“We’re just doing as we’re told,” Mr Jackson said.
“She’s the coach, I’m just the player.”
The Daily Mercury asked if Jacko was concerned whether ballot papers would be tampered with.
“Don’t be silly,” he said.
“We’re not Donald Trump.”
Where was Jacko on election day?
Jacko kept his itinerary for election day largely close to his chest.
The Daily Mercury had for days tried to contact him and the media adviser of the Jacko’s Team – Mackay First party, Alan McNamara, to find out where he would be.
We also approached Mr Jackson’s polling booth volunteer at Victoria Park State School, who told us unlike her, he did not have to answer the media’s phone calls as he was incredibly busy hitting the road campaigning and being available to the 80,000-plus potential voters in the region.
The Daily Mercury shortly after received a text from Mr Jackson stating: “As you can appreciate, I am busy.”
“I’m visiting as many polling booths as I can and can only chat between booths.”
Mr Jackson said he would be at Fitzgerald State School until 11.30am but he was gone before our journalist could catch up with at 11.10am.
Vandals destroy gazebo, corflutes at Sarina
Earlier at Sarina, volunteers and candidates arrived at St Luke’s Anglican Church hall to discover a “destroyed” gazebo and vandalised signs.
Team Williamson volunteer John May, the husband of incumbent deputy mayor Karen May, said there was similar destruction the week earlier.
“It’s very unfortunate,” Mr May said.
“The gazebo was brand new and has only been up 24 hours, and they just crunched it up.
“We recovered but again it was very bad form to see it happening again last night at the polling booth.”
Mackay First candidate Lindsay Temple said he believed the vandals had targeted Jacko’s team with their gazebo destroyed plus a big fence along a Broad St construction site pushed over onto all of their corflute signs.
“So someone’s worried about us winning and we’re going to give them a good shake,” Mr Temple said.
Not enough or ‘too much advertising pushed in your face’, Sarina voters say
Voters at the booth said they were largely unsure about the candidates as there had been little advertising in the Sarina area.
Jozek Zapasnik of Armstrong Beach voted for Justin Englert, but said overall there was “not enough out there to say exactly what they do or what their background is”.
Danielle Angelidis said she “went with what (she) already knew” with a vote for Mr Williamson.
But Kris Thomas said he had seen “too much advertising”, particularly from Jacko’s team, with radio ads “everywhere” that “push it in your face”.
“I just thought it was a bit too pushy for me so I went with Greg, I just thought he’s doing a good job,” Mr Thomas said.
At the quieter polling booth at Marian State School, mother of one Angela also voted for Mr Williamson.
“What he’s done during his two terms has been amazing,” Angela said.
Conversely Taylor, who brought her two young children with her, said she voted for Jacko and his team.
“I don’t really follow what they promote,” she said.
“But Jacko stood out to me.”
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