Clover Moore claims win in Sydney mayoral race

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore was confident of winning a fifth term on Saturday night despite an early swing against her.

Sydney Lord Mayor Cover Moore with husband Peter and dog Banjo. Picture: Tim Hunter

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore was leading a wide field in her bid for a fifth term as the City of Sydney’s top civic leader, with 44 per cent of primary votes in a slow count.

That first-preference figure was well down on the 58 per cent she received in 2016. But only about 24 per cent of votes had been counted on Saturday night from among 175,000 eligible voters.

Runners-up were Indigenous candidate Yvonne Weldon and Labor candidate and councillor, Linda Scott, both on about 16 per cent.

Councillor Scott said on social media she had called Cr Moore to congratulate her on re-election.

Cr Moore, in an election-night speech to supporters, claimed victory despite the only partial count, saying there would be a continuation of “progressive leadership for the city”.

Cr Moore is aiming to cement her name in the record books and all but told her jubilant supporters they could expect her in the top job for another three years.

“It’s been challenging because the campaign has gone on for two years (due to Covid delays),” Cr Moore said.

“We’re going to continue to provide a strong, independent, progressive leadership of the city,’’ she said.

“We’re going to continue our action on climate change, we are going to continue to support our vulnerable communities and we’re going to continue supporting people in social housing. Have a great night and we’ll have another great three years.”

Final results could be days away, but with such a significant early lead, toppling the long-time independent remained a huge task. Independent state MP Alex Greenwich, who is a long-time supporter, said Cr Moore would “be comfortably re-elected’’.

Thank you Sydney! pic.twitter.com/RrpBvjU6AI

— Clover Moore (@CloverMoore) December 4, 2021

The Clover Moore Independent Team also led the separate council ballot’s party results with 42 per cent of the total council vote. The early results represented about a 12 per cent swing against the team, while independent candidates had about a 10 per cent increase in the vote and the Greens were up about 9 per cent

If early indications prove a trend, a change would mean that Labor is likely to pick up one more councillor from the team led by Cr Scott and Ms Weldon will likely get on council in that separate ballot.

The Liberals have also seen a significant early reduction in their vote and may only get one seat on the 10-seat City council.

Councillor Linda Scott.

Sydney mayoral candidate Yvonne Weldon.

The NSW government delayed the council elections twice because of Covid-19.

Most local government areas are having elections conducted by the NSW Electoral Commission. Penrith and Fairfield in western Sydney are running their own elections using private contractors and four councils including Central Coast are in administration with no elections.

Labor and the Greens were dominating early results from counting for the Inner West Council with the Greens out front at 39.8 per cent in the total vote closely followed by Labor 35.6 per cent.

Results from the council’s wards showed the Greens were leading in Ashfield, Balmain, Marrickville and Stanmore while Labor was out front in Leichhardt.

In the Sydney eastern suburbs, Waverley Council’s vote was shaping up as a contest between the Liberals and the Greens.

The Bondi ward was hotly contested with the Greens, led by Dominic Wy Kanak, in front on 39 per cent of the vote. The Liberal party team headed by Leon Goltsman has 35 per cent of the vote and Labor has 25 per cent.

Also in the east, Woollahra Council has seen the Liberal Party dominate in the early stages.

Newcastle Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes was on track for her third consecutive term in the top job as counting continues into the night. With almost 38,350 of the 123,000 possible votes counted, Mrs Nelmes, for Labor, continued to dominate with 15,347 votes.

Counting continued until 11pm on Saturday night.

After reports that the online alternative voting system crashed, the NSW Electoral Commission apologised and said it was “aware that some iVote users were unable to gain access to the system to vote today’’ and cited “the increased volume of people using’’ it.

“Almost triple the number of voters have used iVote at these elections than any previous election,’’ it said.

The Local Government Act was amended earlier this year to allow iVote, which is available to some voters such as absentees, for the first time at council elections, in response to the challenges of Covid-19.

At the 2019 state election, 234,401 votes were cast using iVote. At close of applications at 1pm on Saturday for the local polls, 652,983 votes had been cast using the system since it opened on November 22.

Any eligible elector who applied to use iVote on Saturday but missed out on voting will be excused from paying any penalty.

More than one million people cast prepoll votes or made arrangements to vote by post or online. But long lines were seen at some urban polling booths on Saturday.

Ratepayers in 35 council areas elect their mayor and councillors (some also mayoral candidates) directly for the truncated 2½-year term, while other LGAs vote for councillors who will then elect a mayor to lead the team.

With the Sunday Telegraph