Division 6 Gold Coast council election: New Dawn in Southport as candidate claims victory

Council candidate Brooke Patterson has declared victory, while other divisional battles are still too close to call.

BROOKE Patterson says she is the new Dawn in Southport.

“We’ve won this thing. Thank you everyone,” the financial advisor and community worker posted this morning.

Ms Patterson has been scoring good wins at the Benowa and Keebra Park booths as counting progressed after Saturday’s poll.

You Decided Gold Coast Bulletin Election Forums, Divisions 6, 8, 9, and 11 held at the Southport RSL club in Southport. Division 6 candidate, Brooke Patterson. Picture: Jerad Williams

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She estimated that she had secured almost 46 per cent of the vote at Benowa with rival Shaelee Welchman second on 25.4 per cent. At Keebra, her vote was 66 per cent.

In Division 10, which includes Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach, Darren Taylor and Eddy Sarroff are separated by only a 12 votes with just more than 18 per cent of the vote counted, according to the Electoral Commission of Queensland site.

Mr Taylor late yesterday told his supporters: “I am currently in front but only a small margin. With a record number of pre-poll and postal votes, I do not believe we will have an answer for a little while yet.”

You Decided Gold Coast Bulletin Election Forums, . Divisions 6, 8, 9, and 11 held at the Southport RSL club in Southport. Division 6 candidates, Susie Gallagher, Josephine Tobias, Brooke Patterson, Michael Pulford, and Shaelee Welchman. Picture: Jerad Williams

The make-up of the next Gold Coast City Council should become clearer by tomorrow but not set in stone until at least another week.

Councillor William Owen-Jones, in a Facebook post to residents to update them on counting, said postal votes would continue to be received by the Electoral Commission of Queensland until 5pm on April 7.

In his northern division alone, that number of postal votes could top 4500.

“Given the magnitude of postal votes, the complexity around this particular election, I personally do not expect any formal declaration from the ECQ until after 7th April 2020,” he said.

None of the city councillors are in danger of losing their divisions apart from Division 4 where Cameron Caldwell and Kristyn Boulton are standing in the new division.

The latest results on the ECQ site show Cr Caldwell on 54.37 per cent of the vote with Cr Boulton on 45.63 per cent.