Greens candidate Jonathan Sri declares victory in The Gabba ward after Brisbane City Council election

THE Greens have secured a historic win, following the Brisbane City Council election on Saturday.

Harding

UPDATE 2.03pm:

AFTER claiming victory in The Gabba ward, Greens candidate Jonathan Sri says he’s feeling “excited” and “honoured”.

“This is a huge vote of confidence from residents in the inner-south side,” Mr Sri said.

“I guess I’m really excited to work my butt off and live up to their expectations.”

Mr Sri said the decision to claim the seat came following a call from Labor candidate for the ward, Nicole Lessio on Wednesday, March 23.

“She was very gracious in conceding that it looked like we’d won it,” Mr Sri said.

“We’ll still wait for the official results to come out on Tuesday before partying too hard but it’s looking good.”

Ms Lessio said Mr Sri would have a lot of work to do after securing just one-third of the vote.

But Mr Sri said that was not the right way to look at it.

“Our two-party preferred vote is really strong and we’ve had a massive swing towards us,” Mr Sri said.

“When you look at the vote three or four ways, we haven’t got an outright majority but we are clearly the favourite, the party of choice for people in this area.”

Mr Sri said he would not be sworn into the role of councillor for a couple of weeks.

“But we’ve already started planning for a robust and wide-reaching democracy system,” he said.

Mr Sri said he wanted to offer lots of different opportunities for residents to have a voice and meaningful input and control over the future of their neighbourhoods.

“It’s not going to be politics as usual. This is not just another city councillor, this is a significant shift in the way councillors interact with their residents,” he said.

“We want to be constantly communicating back and forth with the people in our areas and making sure we have strong support and a clear mandate for the changes we’re pushing for.”

Mr Sri said a large public meeting was expected to be held on Sunday, April 10 with a location to be confirmed.

“(It will) sketch out our vision, not just for the changes we want to see in the area, but for how we want to better communicate with residents and create a more transparent and accountable democracy at the local level,” Mr Sri said.

“I hope I can stay true to myself, I don’t want to be that guy who compromises on everything just to try and please everyone but at the same time, you work within the constraints of the system.”

EARLIER:

JONATHAN Sri has declared victory in The Gabba ward.

Mr Sri took to Facebook at 12.45pm on Wednesday, March 23 to make the announcement, following Saturday’s Brisbane City Council election.

“All right. I’m calling it. We won. We actually won,” he said.

The historic win makes Mr Sri the first Greens candidate to be elected to a Queensland government.

Alright. I'm calling it. We won. We actually won.Despite a tiny campaign budget, strong opposing candidates and every...

Posted by Jonathan Sri, Greens for The Gabba on Tuesday, 22 March 2016

At 12.51pm, Labor candidate Nicole Lessio posted on her Facebook page, and also to Twitter.

“I know it has been an agonising wait, but The Gabba has a new councillor. I have just called to congratulate Jonathan Sri on a great campaign and a historic win,” she posted.

Ms Lessio told Quest Community Newspapers there was no point in waiting.

“We lost,” she said.

“Counting is still going on but we’re too far behind to catch up, it’s still going to be very close.”

Ms Lessio said she acted on advice when making the decision.

“The scrutineers have advised the numbers, there’s not a possibility of getting in front of Jonathan, there’s no point in waiting, he’s got work to do,” she said.

Just called 2 congratulate @jonathan_sri Great campaign & historic win in The Gabba Ward. Thanks 2 all supporters, friends & voters #qldpol

— Nicole Lessio (@NicoleLessio) March 23, 2016

According to the Electoral Commission of Queensland, the LNP’s Sean Jacobs has 35.94 per cent of the vote, Cr Sri has 31.48 per cent and Ms Lessio has 30.21 per cent.

People Decide candidate Leon Lechner has 2.38 per cent of the vote.

It comes after City South News today reported The Gabba could elect a Greens candidate to Brisbane City Council.

LNP candidate for The Gabba ward Sean Jacobs.

But Mr Jacobs was not impressed.

“I was just down at the ECQ and nothing’s been declared yet so I found that a bit interesting,” Mr Jacobs said.

“I’d rather just let the ECQ do their job and actually declare things versus just relying on Twitter or relying on Facebook.

“My eyes are fully open about how these things work and how preferences go but there’s still counting to be done so rather than premeditate, it’d just be easier to let things run their course and an official declaration come through.”

According to Facebook, his victory party will be held at the Motor Room at West End on April 8.

The “rough (very rough) line-up” for the Greens event states the evening’s entertainment kicks off with “a bit of Jo Sri spoken word” followed by “firey (sic) speeches and general rambunctiousness”.