Northern Beaches Council election: Swing to Libs, Greens mayor Michael Regan’s independent team
The Northern Beaches Council elections were delayed for more than a year — due to Covid — but Liberals and a team of independents were doing well in early counting
Manly
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A swing of about three per cent to a team of independents fronted by current Mayor Michael Regan has been recorded in early counting for the Northern Beaches Council election.
The Your Northern Beaches Independent Team (YNB), with Mr Regan as its figurehead, is on track to grab at least five seats on the 15-member council, based on a Saturday night count of first preference votes.
The Greens (6.7pc) and the Liberals (4pc) also attracted substantial swings with the Libs eyeing off up to five seat seats.
More than 70 candidates were vying for the 15 council spots, across five separate wards.
Those elected will be on the council until at least September 2024, when the next local government elections are scheduled.
More than 160,000 people are registered to vote on the peninsula. The top three candidates in each of the five wards — Curl Curl, Frenchs Forest, Manly, Narrabeen and Pittwater — will be elected.
There will be at least six new faces on the next council.
Current sitting councillors Pat Daley, Kylie Ferguson, Penny Philpott and Natalie Warren will not be running this term. And two other councillors, Ian White and Roslyn Harrison, are at the bottom of their ward ballot papers and will not be re-elected.
Mr Regan told the Manly Daily on Saturday that he said he received a lot of support from people arriving to vote at Wakehurst Public School where he was doing last minute campaigning.
“I don’t know how that will convert to votes for the Your Northern Beaches Independent Team, but they are saying ‘I just want to vote for you Michael’. I hope it translates into votes for our team.”
Mr Regan had called on voters to support him, and the group of independents, and keep the major political parties at bay so the council can continue to “keep up the momentum” of navigating its way through Covid while offering improved infrastructure and services.
Mr Regan’s YNB running mate in Frenchs Forest, Jose Meno-Pires is on target to win a seat.
YNB was also looking good to win a seat in each of the Curl Curl (Sue Heins) and Narrabeen (Ruth Robins) wards and were polling well in Manly (Sarah Grattan) and Pittwater (Michael Gencher).
Liberal councillors Rory Amon in Pittwater and Stuart Sprott in Frenchs Forest will retain their seats while Lib Bianca Crvelin is doing well in Narrabeen.
And Liberal candidate Georgia Ryburn, who was at the centre of a nasty campaign pamphlet smear last week, was on course to win a spot.
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Another Liberal councillor, Dave Walton, is set to return to the council in the Curl Curl Ward with the Greens Kristyn Glanville battling it out with Labor’s Brandt Clifford for a seat.
In Pittwater Ward, Green, Miranda Korzy was on the verge of winning a seat.
Popular independent councillor Vincent De Luca was heading towards returning to the council for Narrabeen Ward.
In Manly Ward, current deputy mayor Candy Bingham looked set to secure a return to the council.
Earlier in the day some candidates reported relatively low voter turn outs.
Ms Bingham said voting was slow.
“Normally on election day people are queuing out the door,” she said.
“But going on the numbers I’ve been seeing at the seven polling places I’ve been to, I think we’re going to have a low voter turn out.
“It will be interesting to see what the figures for online and pre-poll voting are.
“Or maybe people just aren’t interested.”
Mr Regan said, while staffing the Wakehurst Public School booth, he would be speculating about the reasons for lower than expected voter turn out because figures for online and pre-poll voting were not available to candidates.
Across the state, more than a million people voted prior to Saturday.
“There were also seven pre-poll locations this time, rather than three with voting over two weeks, including Saturdays.
“I was there every day and we had a steady crowd, in the last week in particular.
“I can’t read it in terms of how many people pre-polled or how many people I-voted
Election authorities were concerned that long queues might form today, with pre-poll voting numbers down on expectations.
But Mr Sprott said the numbers of voters turning up at the polling booths he had visited on Saturday morning were steady.
Mr Sprott even had four horse owners turn up to support him. They carried his campaign posters on horseback at several polling stations including Wakehurst, Frenchs Forest and Mimosa public schools.
“At the 13 polling booths I’ve visited there has been a steady stream of people,” he said.
“No long queues, four or five people waiting at most.”
The vote was supposed to have taken place in September 2020, but was postponed, due to strict Covid health lockdowns, to September this year.
But another breakout of the pandemic forced authorities to again delay all council elections across the state to December 4
For more information visit the NSW Electoral Commission website.
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