11:45pm
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And that’s it for the Herald’s live coverage of the 2016 local government elections.
You can read a wrap of the evening’s events here: Labor romps home in local government elections
We will have more coverage on our website tomorrow and in Monday’s paper.
10:45pm
NSW opposition leader Luke Foley weighs in on twitter:
10:30pm:
From Cessnock Advertiser reporter Krystal Sellars:
Cessnock mayor Bob Pynsent will almost certainly be re-elected after claiming 45 per cent of the first preference vote in Saturday’s local government election.
With almost half of the votes counted, Cr Pynsent held a convincing lead over Liberal candidate Rod Doherty (19%), independent John Harvey (15.82%), the Greens’ James Ryan (10.23%) and independent Ian Olsen (10.15%).
Cr Pynsent said the Labor Party was hopeful it would a couple of extra seats on the council, with two in Ward B, retaining its two seats in Ward C and possibly a second councillor in Ward D.
“We’ve had fantastic support from the community,” he said.
In Ward A, Country Labor had 33.25% of the first-preference votes, the Liberals had 27.74%, Allan Stapleford’s independents are on 17.23%, the Greens on 13.7% and Veronica Hope’s independents on 8.07%.
Labor leads the Ward B count with a massive 55.8%, followed by Ian Olsen’s independent team on 26.79%, the Liberals on 15.86% and Greens candidate Greg Astill (who was ungrouped) on 2.27%.
The Labor team also had huge support in Ward C, with 52.87% of the votes counted so far, followed by the Liberals on 22.69%, then the Stepher Hedger-led independent team on 16.4%, and the Greens on 8.04%.
In Ward D, Labor leads the tally with 40.06% to the Liberals’ 29.71%, Graham Burston’s independent team on 17.43% and the Greens on 12.81%.
10pm:
Labor’s Kay Fraser has delivered her victory speech to a crowd of party faithful at the Windale Gateshead Bowling Club.
Cr Fraser was “elated” that she will become the second female mayor of Lake Macquarie when she takes over from Jodie Harrison.
“Labor is back and we’re back for good,” she said
“Its been a bit of a hard slog, we all know it was a difficult pre-selection and we’ve had to work extremely hard...but we’ve had a 12 per cent swing and we are back.”
She thanked her husband and sons Pete and Steve for their support and accused Liberal mayoral candidate Jason Pauling of running a “disgraceful” campaign by sending text messages to ratepayers saying Labor wanted to take away their weekly garbage bin collection.
She said the independents – including Cr Laurie Coghlan – had tried to run on the “coat tails” of the old Lake Alliance while Labor had run a positive, grass-roots campaign.
“We’ve been getting up and going to train stations every morning, freezing, door knocking, letter boxing, going to the markets, we have been working extremely hard.
“I think as a female to run the council is really an honour and a privilege and I think we bring other values to that position as well,” Cr Fraser said.
Outgoing Mayor Jodie Harrison welcomed the result.
“It’s been a long time since a Lake Macquarie mayor has had the benefit of announcing an incoming Lake Macquarie mayor, a Lake Macquarie Labor mayor and a Lake Macquarie woman Labor mayor and I’m here to do it,” she said.
“It’s been a bloody hard road, the last four years of having the almost control of council has been a real challenge, but hey – it’s been a great four years and here we are now.”
9:14pm:
From the Cessnock Advertiser:
Results have started to flow in from Wards B and C.
In Ward B (Central and East Cessnock, Nulkaba, Aberdare and Kearsley), the Country Labor team (led by mayor Bob Pynsent) has taken the lead with 52.9 percent of the first-preference votes counted so far.
Ian Olsen’s independent group has 27.14% and the Liberals (lead by Jacqui LaFrance) have 18.41%, with
Labor also has a big lead in Ward C (Abermain, Weston, Greta and Branxton), with Melanie Dagg’s team on 51.36%, ahead of the John Fagg-led Liberal team on 28.98%.
Ward A is still a close contest with Labor holding 33.58% ahead of the Liberals on 26.74%, incumbent independent councillor Allan Stapleford’s team on 17.92%.
The Greens, led by Cathy Talley, have 13.8% of the vote in Ward A and independent candidate Veronica Hope’s team has 8.27%.
In Ward D, the Labor team has 44.98% of the votes counted so far; the Liberals have 25.93% and the independent team led by Graham Burston has 17.38%.
Bob Pynsent still leads the mayoral contest with 44.62% of the 14,000 votes counted so far. Rod Doherty is on 19%.
9:02pm:
There’s been a big swing towards Labor in Cessnock – with 38 per cent of the voted counted, we’ve seen an 18.89 swing towards the ALP.
There’s suggestions here in the Labor camp that some of the state government’s policies, including the greyhound racing ban and council amalgamations, could have been “on the nose” with voters.
8:50pm:
Crunching the numbers with member for Swansea Yasmin Catley:
“It’s a spectacular result with 31 booths counted, which is half of the booths in Lake Macquarie,” she says.
“We’re sitting at 46 per cent of the primary vote as we speak, with both the Liberal party (Jason Pauling) and Independent (Laurie Coghlan) both sitting on 19 per cent.
“That is a 12.6 per cent swing to Labor on primary votes, which is fantastic.”
8:36pm
Labor’s head office have called it but still no announcement on the ground here in Windale:
8:35pm
A quick update on Cessnock, where Country Labor’s Bob Pynsent has just over 45 per cent of the primary vote, with 13,500 votes counted.
The full breakdown:
James Ryan (Greens): 9.78%
Rod Doherty (Lib): 18.1%
Bob Pynsent (Country Labor): 45.34%
John Harvey (Independent): 16.24%
Ian Olsen (Independent): 10.54%
8:30pm
An assessment of the situation in Lake Macquarie, by Labor federal MP Pat Conroy:
“The only way Kay Fraser can lose is if the dirty preference deals between the Independents and the Liberals hold up.
“Kay's running at 45 per cent of the primary vote and if a decent percentage of people just voted one, Kay will be the next mayor.”
We’re hearing Labor are on the verge of calling Kay Fraser as the next mayor.
8:10pm
Early indications are that Labor’s Kay Fraser will take over from Jodie Harrison as the next mayor of Lake Macquarie. Here’s what she’s had to say, two hours into the count:
7:50pm
This from our friends at the Singleton Argus:
Early counting sees Sue Moore leading John Martin and Tony McNamara in race to be the next mayor.
With just under 4 per cent of the mayoral vote counted Sue Moore leads John Martin by 200 votes with Tony McNamara in third position.
In the counting for councillors John Martin leads Tony McNamara and Danny Thompson with just 6.5 per cent of the vote counted.
Sue George and Val Scott are in fourth and fifth position with Tony Jarrett in sixth.
7.45pm
We’ve arrived at Labor headquarters at the Windale Gateshead Bowling Club, just in time for the finger food. “I’ve been working bloody hard all day,” someone says, helping themselves to a sausage roll. But the mood is upbeat.
7.25pm
Laurie Coghlan (Independent) 20.23%
John Gilbert (Lake Mac Independents) 5.78%
Kay Fraser (Labor) 48.33%
Luke Cubis (Lake Mac Independents) 6.09%
Jason Pauling (Liberal) 16.87%
Colin Grigg (Lake Mac Independents) 2.71%
7:12pm
Some initial numbers from the Lake Macquarie Mayoral count. Much too early to draw any conclusions but Labor’s Kay Fraser is polling strongly, as is independent Laurie Coghlan.
Laurie Coghlan (Independent) 24.9%
John Gilbert (Lake Mac Independents) 5.28%
Kay Fraser (Labor) 44.44%
Luke Cubis (Lake Mac Independents) 1.65%
Jason Pauling (Liberal) 21.76%
Colin Grigg (Lake Mac Independents) 2.39%\
7pm
An initial count has been done for the polling station Pokolbin RFS, which is in Ward A.
The Liberal party have pulled well ahead of the pack on first preferences.
Liberal 47
Group B (Independent) 13
Group C (Independent) 6
Country Labor 14
Greens 10
Informal 4
6:55
And we’re off.
Initial mayoral votes have come in for polling stations across Cessnock.
Incumbent Bob Pynsent has polled strongly for Labor at Kitchener public school and Kurri Kurri High.
Here’s the breakdown at the high school:
James Ryan (Greens): 29
Rod Doherty (Liberal): 97
Bob Pynsent (Labor): 130
John Harvey (Independent): 72
Ian Olsen (Independent): 20
6:50 pm:
The furore over Buchanan mosque made headlines around the state earlier this year and for Cessnock councillors, there could be electoral consequences, depending on which way they swung.
Here’s the breakdown:
Councillors Gibson, Doherty, Olsen and Hawkins voted against the mosque.
Councillors Ryan, Stapleford, Smith, Campbell, Parsons and Pynsent voted in favour.
Independent councillor Cordelia Troy was absent for the meeting.
6:45pm:
One of the names to watch in Lake Macquarie will be Liberal candidate Nick Jones – one-time staffer to former Swansea MP Garry Edwards – who was called to give evidence during the Independent Commission against Corruption’s Operation Spicer probe.
He’s said he’s on ‘awkward terms’ with his former boss.
Speaking of Garry Edwards, he has made a surprise reappearance in these elections, working behind the scenes on independent Laurie Coghlan’s campaign for mayor.
“Garry Edwards was disendorsed by the Liberals, why can’t he hand out for me?” Cr Coghlan told us.
6:25pm: The state of play in Cessnock
Cessnock is Labor heartland with six of its thirteen councillors from the ALP. Mayor Bob Pynsent – from country Labor – will be jockeying for a second term.
He’s up against Liberal councillor Rod Doherty, Cr James Ryan from the Greens and Independent Cr Ian Olsen.
The only candidate in the running who is not already on council is independent John Harvey – you can read about his stranger-than-fiction resume here.
6pm: The state of play in Lake Macquarie
Polling booths have now shut and the first results are expected to trickle in from 7pm.
In Lake Macquarie, long-serving councillor Kay Fraser is in pole position to take the Mayoral robes after an impressive swing towards the Labor party in the 2012 election.
However it remains to be seen whether Cr Fraser will be as popular as Jodie Harrison, who must relinquish her council role after being elected to state parliament in 2014.
The ALP is also likely to gain some ground because of the absence of the Greens – who were left red-faced when they missed the deadline for nominations by five minutes.
Also in the mix is businessman and councillor Jason Pauling running for the Liberal party, veteran independent councillor Laurie Coghlan and newcomers the Lake Mac Independents.
To join the conversation email carrie.fellner@fairfaxmedia.com.au or tweet @carriefellner
5:30pm
Welcome to the Herald’s live coverage of the 2016 local government elections in Lake Macquarie and Cessnock.
Ratepayers in Newcastle, Port Stephens and Maitland will all be spared a trip to the polls while they wait to find out if their councils will be amalgamated by the state government and administrators installed.