Bucking the Mayoral Trend

THE count for the mayoral referendum in the Upper Hunter Shire Council is finalised and the “no’s” have it with 4,381 to 3,309 votes.

The NSW electoral commission were surprised by the outcome saying that generally when the directly elected Mayor is put to the vote “people tend to be in favour of more democracy”.

Since 2008 there have been 12 local government areas have a referendum to decide if their Mayor is elected by the people or the other Councillors and only two have elected to keep the decision in the hands of the Councillors.

Councils who voted yes included: Burwood, Kempsey, Mosman, Port Stephens, Snowy River, North Sydney, Orange, Hills Shire, Ruralla and Wyong.

Councils who voted no included: Cobar and Ku-ring-gai.