Updated 1 October: The final election results have been declared (if you want to review them in more detail, go here).
The following are the new Northern Beaches Council Councillors who are expected to make their first appearance in chambers on 8 October, with the next full meeting on 15 October.
Curl Curl Ward
Joeline Hackman (Your Northern Beaches Independent Team)
Nicholas Beaugeard (Your Northern Beaches Independent Team)
Kristyn Glanville (The Greens)
Frenchs Forest Ward
Ethan Hrnjak (The Greens)
Sue Heins (Your Northern Beaches Independent Team)
Jody Williams (Your Northern Beaches Independent Team)
Manly Ward
Candy Bingham (Good For Manly)
Sarah Grattan (Your Northern Beaches Independent Team)
Bonnie Harvey (The Greens)
Narrabeen Ward
Vincent De Luca (Independent)
Ruth Robins (Your Northern Beaches Independent Team)
Robert Giltinan (Independent)
Pittwater Ward
Rowie Dillon (Your Northern Beaches Independent Team)
Mandeep Singh (Independent – Liberal Affiliate)
Miranda Korzy (The Greens)
The Northern Beaches Council will have seven members of Your Northern Beaches Independent Team (YNBIT), three Greens, one Good For Manly, three Independents including one Liberal affiliate.
Updated 19 September: The NSW Local Government Elections were held on Saturday, 14 September, with residents of the five wards electing 15 new councillors to govern the Northern Beaches.
The votes are still being counted, and the election results are not formally concluded until all postal votes have been returned to the Electoral Commissioner in late September. When all the votes have been counted, the official announcement of the election results will be declared in writing. Results will be declared between 1 and 3 October 2024.
With that caveat in mind, we can provide the following list of statistically certain and/or probable candidates for each ward below.
The crux? The new Northern Beaches Council will have at least seven members of Your Northern Beaches (YNB) Independent Team, anywhere from one to three Greens (GRN), three independents and one Liberal affiliate. Originally it looked certain for three Green candidates to cross the line but a late swing against has put that in doubt. Time will tell.
Councillors are expected to make their first appearance in chambers on 8 October, with the next full meeting on 15 October.
Voters vote Libs, trump’, ‘holt’ in protest
One notable trend this year was the incredible number of informal votes or invalid votes. (Often these are donkey votes, but many this year were reportedly drawn in candidate options). While one in five ballots in the first count were deemed informal/other to be counted, the final figure should be less than that as the informal category also includes a number of below the line , legitimate votes that will be counted in due course. Please note that this is a clarification and correction on our previous story, which stated one in five was informal (not informal/other.)
In any event, the number is expected to be much higher than average.
One election official confirmed confidentially with Manly Observer that she had never seen anything quite like it. Describing the number as “insane”, the official said they “ranged from manually drawing on Liberals to voting for Donald Trump and Harold Holt.”
While it is expected that the large number was due to a protest vote from there being no official Liberal Party candidates in this election (a recap on what happened is here), Curl Curl candidate and almost certainly new councillor, Joeline Hackman, said she did not think that more than 22 per cent of the informal votes in her area were necessarily linked to the lack of Liberal offering.
“Voting was genuinely confusing for some people, particularly with Labor in Narrabeen and Curl Curl having a below the line candidate,” she explained.
“Some people voted a 1 above the line and a 2 or 3 below the line or vice versa and many ballots were spoiled.
“With three tiers of government having such different voting systems, it’s no wonder 20 per cent of the community were confused.”
So, which way did the so-far counted legitimate votes go?
Curl Curl ward
- Joeline Hackman (YNB)
- Nicholas Beaugeard (YNB)
- Kristyn Glanville (GRN) (Has not yet reached required number to progress but is close and unlikely to be overtaken in preferences. Comment added at 19 September)
The count as at 11am 16 September. There are 38,977 registered voters in this ward.
Manly ward
- Sarah Grattan (YNB)
- Candy Bingham (GFM)
- *Third candidate too close to predict (This remains so as at 19 September)
The count as at 11am 16 September. There are 37,493 registered voters in this ward.
Frenchs Forest ward
- Sue Heins (YNB)
- Jody Williams (YNB)
- Ethan Hrnjak (GRN) (After big swing in recent votes this is now too close to call and may fall to YNB Penny Philpott)
The count as at 11am 16 September. There are 37,323 registered voters in this ward.
Narrabeen ward
- Vincent De Luca (IND)
- Robert Giltinan (IND) (this name has been added after a strong vote towards Vincent De Luca’s group 19 September)
- Ruth Robins (YNB)
The count as at 11am 16 September. There are 37,814 registered voters in this ward.
Pittwater ward
- Mandeep Singh (IND – Liberal affiliate)
- Rowie Dillon (YNB)
- Miranda Korzy (GRN) (still very probable but votes have swung against so not currently at required number of votes as at 19 September)
The count as at 11am 16 September. There are 37,134 registered voters in this ward.
You can view the latest counts live on the NSW Electoral Commission website. https://vtr.elections.nsw.gov.au/LG2401/northern-beaches/results
We also read The Tally Room, which provides the following prediction on the Northern Beaches results:
Northern Beaches – YNB 7, IND 3, GRN 2, GFM 1, Undecided 2
Curl Curl, Narrabeen and Pittwater have been decided (ed’s note: as above)
In the other two wards, we have election day booths fully reported along with the Avalon, Balgowlah and Brookvale pre-poll booths. We also have five booths reporting the check count for Frenchs Forest (almost 4,000 votes total) and five much smaller booths reporting for Manly (416 votes).
- Frenchs Forest – YNB’s third candidate has taken the lead – 3.01 quotas to 0.99. But the Greens have been doing better than necessary on the check count, putting them just in front. No preferences will be a factor here, so whichever group gets over the final quota wins the final seat.
- Manly – Greens lead with 0.65, YNB has 0.49, Labor has 0.43 and Good For Manly also has 0.43. Preferences will be decisive here but it’s hard to pick it. I suspect Greens will win.
