Allona Lahn wins Qld election fight for Gympie council seat

The fight for Gympie’s Division 5 council seat has taken a shocking turn following a recount, with candidates raising their concerns about the handling of the count.

The Division 5 battle between Kris Kahler, Allona Lahn, and incumbent Dan Stewart has been turned on its head after 200 votes for Ms Lahn were reportedly counted but not included in the running tally until she requested a recount.

The tight Division 5 race in the Gympie Regional Council election has been turned on its head after a recount called by last place candidate Allona Lahn turned up more than 200 votes in her favour which had not been included in the ongoing tally.

The discovery of the votes pushed Ms Lahn, who had been sitting in last place by a slim margin on the Electoral Commission Queensland website’s official first preference count, into first place ahead of incumbent Dan Stewart,

Mr Stewart had been shown to be leading the race since Thursday, March 21.

It is understood about half of the Division 5 voters, which covers parts of Gympie city and rural residential areas in the region’s southeast, voted at the Senior Citizens Centre on March 16.

Unofficial figures on the ECQ website show 864 of its voters cast their ballots there.

This was more than the number of votes cast in the division’s two rural booths, at Gympie East and Mothar Mountain, combined, which was 778.

It is understood the 200-plus votes supporting Allona Lahn were part of a larger group of about 1000 cast at the Senior Citizens Centre that were initially not included in the recount.

These were counted as “absentee” voters as the centre is located within the Division 4 boundaries.

Another 1949 of the electorate’s more than 4000 voters cast their ballot early, and 322 postal votes were cast.

Ms Lahn called for a recount late Tuesday.

The recount was undertaken Wednesday, at which point it was reportedly discovered that the more than 200 votes for Ms Lahn had not been included in the online tally.

These votes were among about 1000 from the Senior Citizens Centre that were found to have not been included in the recount.

When added, they pushed Ms Lahn into the lead, Mr Stewart to second, and Kris Kahler to last place.

In social media posts made Wednesday afternoon, Mr Stewart and Mr Kahler each said the election returning officer could give “no explanation”.

The votes pushed Allona Lahn into first place from the last spot, with incumbent candidate Dan Stewart saying on social media the preferences for the now last-place Kris Kahler running to Ms Lahn by about “two-to-one”.

It is now expected Ms Lahn will win the seat, with Mr Stewart saying in his post those who had given preferences on their ballots for Mr Kahler favoured Ms Lahn by about “two-to-one”.

On Thursday an ECQ spokeswoman said in response to questions about the concerns raised about the tally the recount was “not uncommon”.

The one for Division 5 was “approved to ensure all candidates, the ECQ and other stakeholders have confidence in the processes undertaken before a declaration is made”.

“Before a declaration of an elected candidate can be made, the ECQ must be certain that the number of ballot papers outstanding (i.e. postal ballots) and the preferences marked by electors cannot change the outcome,” she said.

“ The ECQ will only make declarations once there is absolute certainty about the result.”

In a Facebook post Thursday morning, Ms Lahn celebrated her win and the results of the recount saying “truth and light prevailed”.

“As promised I will give 110 per cent as a full time councillor and although I cannot guarantee perfect roads or a rate drop I do promise to lobby and advocate, bring integrity, positivity, action, great communication and some much needed sparkle to council.

“There is a story and some conjecture about why I went from the initial 42 per cent lead to losing and then winning the election.

“Let’s just say the ECQ will have to answer how and why, 200 of my votes were unaccounted for and only counted after I lobbied for a recount.”

Originally published as Allona Lahn wins Qld election fight for Gympie council seat