New borough councillors sworn in, city councillors declared

THE new Borough of Queenscliffe council has been sworn in, and the City of Greater Geelong council has been officially declared after recounts in three wards.

The Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) calculated the results in this year’s local council election for each of the city’s 11 single-member wards and the borough’s unsubdivided municipality on Saturday, provisionally electing both councils.

Councillors are not formally elected under the VEC officially declares the results for each municipality, which the VEC did for the borough on Wednesday this week.

The successful five candidates for the Borough of Queenscliffe are below, listed in the order they were elected:

• Donnie Grigau, with 22.32 per cent of first preferences
• Isabelle Tolhurst, with 17.77 per cent of first preferences
• Brendan Monahan, with 16.69 per cent of first preferences
• Di Rule, with 13.68 per cent of first preferences, and
• Helene Cameron, with 7.14 per cent of first preferences.

Borough chief executive officer Martin Gill congratulated the new councillors and thanked all 11 candidates who ran for election.

“I’d like to give a warm welcome to the new councillors, as well as those who are returning,” Mr Gill said.

“I look forward to working closely with the new council as we continue to progress important projects across the borough.”

Close results in the city’s Connewarre, Charlemont and Deakin wards led the VEC to conduct a recount and push back the declaration of results, which took place earlier today (Thursday, November 14).

Six incumbent councillors were re-elected.

The 11 successful candidates for the city are below, listed alphabetically by ward name:

• Barrabool Hills Ward – Ron Nelson, with 51.67 of first preference votes
• Charlemont Ward – Emma Sinclair, with 51.92 per cent of all votes after the distribution of preferences
• Cheetham Ward – Melissa Cadwell, with 45.26 per cent of first preference votes
• Connewarre Ward – Elise Wilkinson, with 50.01 per cent of first preference votes
• Corio Ward – Anthony Aitken, with 48.19 per cent of first preference votes
• Deakin Ward – Andrew Katos, with 54.12 per cent of all votes after the distribution of preferences
• Hamlyn Heights – Eddy Kontelj, with 45.69 per cent of first preference votes
• Kardinia Ward – Stretch Kontelj, with 28.18 per cent of first preference votes
• Leopold Ward – Trent Sullivan, with 56.21 per cent of first preference votes, and
• Murradoc Ward – Rowan D. Story, with 51.21 per cent of first preference votes, and
• You Yangs – Chris Burson, with 47.88 per cent of first preference votes.

For more information, head to vec.vic.gov.au/voting/2024-local-council-elections/greater-geelong-city-council/results and vec.vic.gov.au/voting/2024-local-council-elections/borough-of-queenscliffe-council/results