General News
20 March, 2024
Waiting game for TRC Mayor
OFFICIAL counting was well underway on Monday morning as Tablelanders waited to find out who their next Mayor will be.
In unofficial figures on the Electoral Commission Queensland’s website, incumbent Mayor Rod Marti was leading his opponent Cr David Clifton by 1000 votes with 73% of the votes counted.
But official counting, which began on Sunday, had the pair in a close contest, with Marti taking a slim lead on Monday morning, but only with 22% counted.
On Sunday, Mayor Marti told The Express he was “comfortable with where the numbers” were and thanked those who supported him.
“I really appreciate the support I have received, not only through the campaign, but for the past four years,” he said on Sunday.
He also believes the community and the organisation will benefit from his continued leadership.
“This is the first time since 2008 that we have not had a new Mayor,” he said.
“The organisation needs stability, it needs time to mature a bit instead of this churn we have been having which usually means someone coming in with a new direction and wanting to change things.”
Mayor Marti said the council had done extensive work over the past four years, developing asset management plans for critical functions of council and commissioning a service level review that would deliver efficiencies and drive performance throughout the organisation.
“We’ve done all the ground work and now we need to back ourselves and get the job done,” he said.
The election was not without issues, with reports that, similarly to Cairns and Brisbane, polling booths ran out of voting papers.
Cr Clifton said polling booths at Tolga, Merriland Hall and Malanda had reportedly run out of ballot papers and advised voters to go toe the next polling booth.
On Monday, Cr Clifton was still waiting for more votes to be officially recorded, saying he believed it would be a close contest.
