Mark Jamieson with supporters (from left) Russell Wood, Alice Wood, Monica Smith and his brother Donald Jamieson.
MARK Jamieson almost certainly is the new mayor of the Sunshine Coast after he streeted a big field of rivals to emerge a clear frontrunner with 33.15% of the vote last night.
Mr Jamieson’s nearest rival is Maroochydore pharmacist Warren Blee who was last night not willing to concede defeat.
Mr Blee held 17.98% of the vote and was hoping for a strong flow of preferences from Brett Winkler, Michael Bloyce and Kim Edwards as well as strong support from postal votes.
However he rated his chances more theoretical than practical.
Mr Jamieson said he was heartened by the support he had received across the Sunshine Coast from very genuine people.
“It is just fantastic,” he said.
Mr Jamieson said his first priority would be to unite councillors as results were determined and then work with them to set priorities and an agenda.
He said he had worked with very committed people against candidates strongly backed by the LNP and Labor who were able to put a lot of people on the ground.
Mr Jamieson said issues with the de-amalgamation of Noosa would have to be managed in a fair and reasonable way.
“Noosa is still part of the Sunshine Coast and we will have to run with it and be fair,” he said.
Mr Jamieson said he did not expect preference allocation to Mr Blee to threaten his lead because the second marker had not had a presence at every polling place.
He said his team had run a very professional campaign and stuck to the critical issues of employment, collaboration with other levels of government to work harder and smarter and to leverage a lot of the good work of the Abbot council around sustainability.
Mr Jamieson said he believed growth could be managed while caring for all the things that attracted people to the region.
But he said there was a need to develop more prosperity in what was an economy that went up and down.
“We need to level out the hills and hollows,” Mr Jamieson said.
He said there were real opportunities in major projects coming on line around education, health, aviation, aged care and sport and recreation.
Mr Jamieson said the three main sectors of tourism, construction and retail would still have an impact but there was a need to change the weighting.
“I think we were respected for our courageous ‘Just Vote 1’ campaign. It showed we were serious.”
Informal votes represented a striking 6.59% of votes counted.
Elsewhere, Ron Dyne looked safe to return as the mayor of Gympie Regional Council with 42% of the vote ahead of Mick Vernados on 30%.
Allan Sutherland was last night confident of victory with 43% of the vote for the race to be the mayor of Moreton Bay Regional Council, ahead of Chris Whiting on 25.7% and Greg Chapman on 17.7%.
LATEST RESULTS
RYAN-SYKES, Matthew
2919 (2.75%)
JAMIESON, Mark
35,095 (33%)
HOPKINS, Jim
3076 (2.9%)
BLUMEL, Debbie
17,281 (16%)
BLOYCE, Michael
8246 (7.76%)
EDWARDS, Kim
6474 (6%)
BLEE, Warren
18,913 (17.8%)
WINKLER, Brett
14,244 (13.4%)
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