Although neither Byrne or Schier has conceded or claimed victory, it looks likely that within the next 48 hours, Cairns' will usher in it's first female mayor in 130 years.
Schier holds the lead on 27,509 votes or 47.11%. Incumbent Mayor, Kevin Byrne, gained 25,843 on the election night count, 44.26%.
There was a decisive swing across the region, against the Byrne style of leadership. Unity's massive advertising budget, predicted to be between $300,000-$400,000, appears to not have swayed voters. Exit polling verified that the series of negative advertising probably worked against them in the last week.
"It turned us off," said Sue and Terry Johnson of Edgehill. "We were undecided up until the last week, but the tactics like those advertisements were very aggressive. It made our minds up."
It appears that many voters felt that Cairns city was loosing control of developments and town planning seemed to have little checks and balance.
Developments like False Cape, GlenCorp apartments at Clifton Beach and Woree, the Villa Romana debacle, private certifier approvals, and many 'material change of use' applications have left the community angry at the role of their Council.
Returning Officer Ken Gorton has confirmed that there is still 5,700 pre-poll votes to be counted and an additional 2,000 postal votes. It may well be Tuesday before all the postal votes are counted.
4 comments:
You people are more confident than I. The pre-poll votes are being counted now and so far Byrne has reduced Vals lead from 1600 odd overnight to about 1200. He has 52% to her 41% so far of pre-poll(200 odd counted).
Being the sad person I am I have done a quick calculation. There are about 7700 postal and pre-votes to be counted (2000 already done). If Byrne gets 55% of those he will close the gap to around 500.
It will certainly come down to preferences, and they could go either way. It doesn't look home and hosed for Val just yet.
NO IT WONT BE OVER TILL THE FAT MAN SINGS !
I want to hear the fat man sing, "back to the USSR."
Scrutineers at the polls report generally the preferences being (out of 100), 73 nothing additional, 12 Schier, and 5 Byrne. This is completely logical and easily makes Val the winner.
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