2024 Parramatta and Cumberland Council results

Defiant property developer Ronney Oueik might miss a chance to return to council duties in Cumberland, while a Greens hopeful may also bow out of the race after coming close to securing a spot on the chamber. Read the latest.

Independent candidate for Cumberland Council’s South Granville ward Ronney Oueik at Blaxcell Street Public School polling booth on Saturday afternoon.

Defiant property developer Ronney Oueik might miss a chance to return to council duties after a nine-year absence from local government, with counting placing him in third spot.

Auburn pharmacist Ahmed Ouf was leading the race in the council’s South Granville ward with 27.78 per cent of the vote on Monday, followed by Our Local Community councillor Paul Garrard, who holds 20.59 per cent while Labor’s Glenn Elmore (18.65 per cent) could just scrape in to return to his seat.

Cumberland has three councillors for each of the five wards.

On Saturday, Mr Oueik – a former Auburn councillor who was cleared of any wrongdoing after the 2016 Auburn Council public inquiry – said voters were not represented and he was determined to regain his role with a spot on Cumberland Council.

However, shortly after 1pm on Monday, he was trailing with 17.61 per cent of the vote in the South Granville ward, which comprises South Granville, the Cumberland parts of Chester Hill, Guildford, Merrylands, Auburn and Regents Park.

South Granville tallied 3933 informal votes at 30.87 per cent. Across Cumberland, 12,491 of the 133,113 electors cast informal votes on Saturday.

Counting in the Wentworthville ward indicated Greens hopeful Sujan Selventhiran could be the first candidate from his party to win a spot on the council.

Ronney Oueik.

Sujan Selventhiran.

Mr Selventhiran was coming third behind Labor’s Suman Saha (36.75 per cent) and the Liberals’ Michael Zaiter (31.64 per cent) on Monday.

The Toongabbie 39-year-old telecommunications operations manager, who is involved with the Sydney Tamil community, holds 18.04 per cent of the first-party preference vote.

The Wentworthville ward, which includes Girraween, Pendle Hill and Toongabbie, has a high Tamil and South Asian population.

However, Labor could ruin the Greens’ party in the likely scenario it secures two seats in the Wentworthville ward, with the return of Suman Saha and Mayor Lisa Lake, who ran as No. 2 on the ticket.

“We definitely believe we should retain 1 and 2 – myself and Lisa,’’ Mr Saha said.

He said postal and pre-poll votes had only started being counted at 10am on Monday.

A win from Liberal candidate Nadima Kafrouni-Saba in the Greystanes ward could remove long-time councillor and former mayor Greg Cummings.

Labor could also continue to have two councillors in the Regents Park ward with Rafah Chalabi, who was No. 2 on Enver Yasar’s Labor ticket, in a tussle with Liberal hopeful Steve Yang. Our Local Community’s Helen Hughes’ return to council is looking promising, with 26.30 per cent of the vote.

The Liberal comeback is well and truly under way at Parramatta, particularly in the hotly contested Dundas ward where Tanya Raffoul hit the front with 33.85 per cent of the first-preference vote, followed by Labor’s Anthony Ellard (29.04 per cent).

They’re followed by the Community Champions’ Kellie Darley (21.25 per cent), whose fight to oust Our Local Community’s Michelle Garrard is shaping up to be successful.

Tanya Raffoul leads the race in the Dundas ward.

Kellie Darley at Ermington West Public School.

Ms Garrard is trailing at 15.86 per cent.

The Liberals are also making inroads to returning to Parramatta in other wards such as Rosehill, where former Lord Mayor Steven Issa holds 32.33 per cent of the vote after Labor’s Patricia Prociv who is leading the race with an emphatic 41.34 per cent of votes. Community Champions candidate Jayne Christian is third with 9.12 per cent.

The Liberals’ Georgina Valjak is storming home to a victory in North Rocks, where 45.72 per cent cast their ballot for her.

Liberal Martin Zaiter is also likely to secure a spot in the chamber with his spot in No. 2 of the Parramatta ward (30.79 per cent).

Epping ward voters made it clear they missed the Liberals at the last election, with 33.48 per cent of the vote supporting Sreeni Pillamarri, who holds a clear lead ahead of Labor’s Cameron MacLean on 26.19 per cent.