COUNCILLORS have dominated the flow of preferences for the this month’s Monash Council election, according to the candidate statements released by the Victorian Electoral Commission yesterday.
In Mount Waverley, incumbents Jieh-Yung Lo and Tom Morrissey are the most popular candidates among their peers.
Cr Lo, who received 2773 first preference votes in 2008, was preferenced second by six out of 14 candidates.
While only two candidates gave Cr Morrissey their second preferences, he received 4375 first preference votes at the last election.
In nearby Glen Waverley, Lorraine Morrissey — the wife of Mr Morrissey — was preferenced second by three candidates.
Incumbent Geoff Lake received only one second preference. In 2008 he received 10,076 first preference votes.
A third of the candidates in the Mulgrave ward listed Paul Klisaris as their second preference. He received 7352 first preference votes at the last election. Fellow incumbent Micaela Drieberg is Cr Klisaris’ second preference.
But the battle will be hardest fought in Oakleigh where newcomer Theo Zographos was preferenced second by six candidates.
Of the 20 candidates in the Oakleigh ward, five will direct their second preferences to incumbent Stephen Dimopoulos, followed by Bill Pontikis with four and Stefanie Perri with two.
Mr Zographos is most well known for almost pipping Oakleigh member Ann Barker at the post during the last state election. He also ran for council in 2008 but was dominated by Mr Dimopoulos and Ms Perri who received 5920 votes and 2783 votes, respectively.
The Monash Council election will use a full preferential voting system which requires locals to number the candidates on their ballot paper. As more than one person is elected per ward, a proportional counting system is used.
A candidate has to win a quota of the votes to be elected. This is calculated by dividing the total number of formal votes by the number of council seats available in every ward and then adding 1 to the result. A candidate who reaches the quota is elected.
If a candidate has more votes than the quota, all the extra votes are distributed to the remaining candidates according to the preferences on the ballot. These votes are worth less than 1 and their value is determined by dividing the number of extra votes with the total number of votes for the candidate.
For the latest election news, visit monashweekly.com.au