City councillors officially declared after recounts

THE new 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 on Saturday, provisionally electing the councillors.

Councillors are not formally elected under the VEC officially declares the results for each municipality, and close results in the city’s Connewarre, Charlemont and Deakin wards led the VEC to conduct a recount and push back its 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