Whitsunday mayor by-election: Watch the results unfold

ELECTION LIVE: A Queensland mayoral election frontrunner has blasted the process which is still days away from revealing a winner.

LATEST: Whitsunday Mayoral frontrunner Mike Brunker has slammed the costly election process as the region remains days out from knowing the winner.

“You can’t feel anything because although I’m 1200 in front it goes through the ridiculous process of preferences now,” he said.

“The person who comes last could decide who is mayor.”

The division six councillor said those tallying the votes were waiting until Tuesday afternoon from when no more postal votes would be counted.

Mike Brunker has slammed the Whitsunday mayoral election process. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Once the postal votes had been counted, it then moved to the preferences of the candidate with the least amount of votes – which at the moment was Philip Batty.

“Then whoever has come second last,” Mr Brunker said.

“Preferences are just ridiculous because the people who are voted the least amount get to choose who the mayor is, which is just wrong.”

Mr Brunker said the earliest the Whitsunday region would know the result was Wednesday labelling the process as “archaic and slow”.

“We really need an inquiry into how they do it,” he said.

“They can count 53 million votes in America in one night, yet they can’t count 23,000 votes in Australia in one by-election in a week.

“They charge council for that.”

Mr Brunker said the by-election was likely to set Whitsunday council back more than $300,000.

“If I win we have to go through another by-election … we have to go through it all again,” he said, adding this was why the council was pushing for a postal vote if that was the case.

“We were knocked back.

“We’ll be asking the deputy premier again if I win to let us have a postal vote to make it easier on the people in this division.”

EARLIER: With 69.39 per cent of the vote counted, the race for Whitsunday mayor is too close to call.

Councillor Mike Brunker is in front, but with six contenders and three with close vote totals, we are a long way from a result.

Mr Brunker, Councillor Al Grundy and former Dawson One Nation candidate Julie Hall are all in contention.

Mr Brunker has 29.1 per cent of the first preference vote, or 4742 votes.

Mr Grundy trails in second place with 21.6 per cent of the vote and Mrs Hall is in third position with 20.7 per cent of the vote.

At various times throughout the count, Mr Brunker, Mrs Hall and Mr Grundy have traded places as leader, though Mr Brunker’s frontrunner position has stabilised.

Speaking on election night on Saturday, Mr Brunker said the final result could well come down to preference flows.

“If it’s not me, I hope it’s Al (Grundy),” he said.

Reflecting on the count on Sunday afternoon, Councillor Jan Clifford said the result would likely come down to preferences and added she had “no idea” who would come out on top.

The full results as of August 16, 5pm are here:

The count will continue on Monday.

INITIAL: The polls have closed in the Whitsunday Regional Council by-election for mayor and the count is rolling in.

More than 23,900 electors are eligible to cast a ballot in the by-election, which will chart a new path at the council following the ascension of former Whitsunday mayor Andrew Willcox to federal politics.

The Electoral Commission of Queensland called the by-election to fill his vacancy on July 15 and nominations for the job closed on July 25.

Six contenders threw their hat into the ring, namely Councillor Mike Brunker, Councillor Jan Clifford, Councillor Mike Grundy, former Dawson One Nation candidate Julie Hall, Phil Batty and local businessman Peter J Hood.

The election used an optional preferential system of voting, which means voters could choose to number one, some or all of the boxes on the ballot paper in the order of their preference.

OPV can reduce the influence of preference flows and makes the first preference count all the more important.

Speaking on Saturday morning, Cr Clifford said the short campaign had been “relatively civilised” and she predicted a “tight” vote.

Early voting in the race started on August 1 at three polling booths located in Collinsville, Proserpine and Cannonvale.

By August 12, the day before the election, 51.82 per cent of electors had already cast a ballot, either in person or via telephone and postal voting.

An ECQ spokesman said the count would not be completed on Saturday night and would spill over into Sunday.

The spokesman also said it was unlikely a result would be known tonight because even though a majority of electors had cast their ballots before election day, those votes were not counted until the close of polls.

Whitsunday Regional Council holds a population base of 37,660 people and ropes in the towns of Proserpine, Collinsville, Bowen and Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands.

Tourism, agriculture and its position as a launch pad into the coal-rich Bowen Basin serve as the core pillars of its economic base.

It also boasts the Abbot Point export terminal at Bowen.

Its gross regional product is about $3.5bn.

For 2022-23, the council delivered a $137m operating budget.

Should one of the councillors be elected mayor, another by-election will be called to fill his or her seat.