No winners or grinners as vote count paused until Monday

VOTERS across NSW headed to the polls on Saturday for the Local Government Elections, but as of 10pm, no clear winners had emerged, with a large number of votes still to be counted.

Voting closed at 6pm, and counting started immediately. However, by the end of the night, the outcome remained uncertain across the Northern Rivers and much of the state.

Acting NSW Electoral Commissioner Dr Matthew Phillips the count will continue on Monday.

“In line with our work health and safety principles, staff will get a well-deserved break tomorrow before counting resumes on Monday,” Phillips said.

Essential operations, including the delivery of ballot papers and other materials to centralised counting centres, will still take place on Sunday.

More than 1.3m votes were cast ahead of the election day.

The final count cannot be completed until all postal votes are returned to the Electoral Commissioner.

Postal votes can be submitted until 6pm on September 27.

Once all votes are in, the official election results will be declared in writing, with results expected between October 1 and 3.