By Rose Astley
It is likely that Noosa will be informed of its new mayor in the next day.
Challenger Clare Stewart has been neck and neck with incumbent Tony Wellington since the count began on March 28.
Ms Stewart said she has been attending the formal count of votes at Swanbourne Way over the last two days and is feeling confident she is up for a win.
“This afternoon I attended Swanbourne Way for further counting of mayoral votes. It was again a good day. At the end of the count I was 284 votes ahead of Mayor Wellington.
“At the closure of the afternoon we headed outside and Mayor Wellington congratulated me on what I believe will be a win.
“There are still some postal votes to come in and a recount of Cooroy early voting but I think the difference between us is now large enough to presume that I will win the mayoralty of Noosa.
“It has been a very long week and I understand the community’s need to move forward in these trying times,” Ms Stewart said in a Facebook post yesterday.
According to the Electoral Commission Queensland unofficial preliminary count, Ms Stewart is currently 65 votes ahead of Mr Wellington as of this morning.
The current mayor shared his concerns in a Facebook post last Friday.
“Still to be added in are the ‘declaration votes’ (around 500 votes where people turned up to booths and their details didn’t match the electoral roll – these need to be checked against the updated roll before they can be counted), plus whatever postal votes trickle in between now and Tuesday afternoon.
“I think I’ll be lucky to make up the lost ground. Not impossible, but also not likely. We won’t know the end result until next week.
“Whatever happens, it’s been a privilege to serve this community,” Mr Wellington said.
