April 1, 2020
South Burnett Mayoral candidate Brett Otto has opened up a 470-vote lead over incumbent Keith Campbell in official polling figures after last Saturday’s Council elections.
However, southburnett.com.au understands Mr Otto’s lead is actually greater as updates on the Electoral Commission of Queensland website have been stalled since Monday.
In a video released on social media, Mr Otto said the numbers were “looking promising” but he was not prepared to claim victory yet.
“I will wait for the final declaration from the ECQ,” he said.
Mr Otto thanked his supporters throughout the campaign whom he said had been “absolutely tremendous”.
Incumbent mayor Keith Campbell said there were an estimated 2000 postal votes still to be counted and preference votes to be distributed.
“If the trend at the moment continues with the postal votes and the preferences, then the gap would be sufficiently wide for Brett to become mayor,” he said.
The counting of postal votes is due to begin on Wednesday or Thursday.
A final result in the mayoral poll may be known as early as Friday.
Mayoral candidate Abigail Andersson conceded she could not win.
“The time has come to say thank you,” she wrote on social media.
“While I’ve been unsuccessful I do feel honoured by each and every vote and I remain as always dedicated to fighting for fair and supporting the ‘doers’ in our community.
“I continue to seek to be worth knowing, not well-known, and to that end I hope you were proud to support me.”
Mayoral candidate Toni Ralph also conceded defeat with a statement on social media.
“Thank you to those people who thought I would make a good leader – those that lent me the A-frames, gave me their support at the booths, helped me with my flyers; my husband and daughter for bearing with me, the rest of my family for giving me text message support every other day,” she said.
“I misunderstood what it takes to be elected as Mayor. Hope you all survive the next coming years of uncertainty.
“I have a new job prospect and look like not being a part of the South Burnett for too much longer.”
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In the South Burnett’s Division 6, sitting councillor Ros Heit is going neck-to-neck with candidate Scott Henschen.
At 12:30pm on Wednesday, Cr Heit had a 71-vote lead.
Results are much clearer in Division 4 where newcomer Kirstie Schumacher has defeated sitting councillor Terry Fleischfresser.
Similarly, Cr Kathy Duff has had an easy victory in Division 5 over Colleen Bird.
In Division 3, sitting councillor Danita Potter has defeated challenger Rhonda Trivett.
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NB. Official counts for the South Burnett, Cherbourg, Toowoomba and Gympie councils are being updated in our earlier report.
