By Ethan Benedicto
The early provisional results for select wards in the City of Casey council elections are in, as the wards look to tally up the final numbers for November.
It is important to note that these are the numbers as of 30 October, the total detrimental tally has yet to be decided and is still subject to change.
As it stood at 11.50am, Samuel Dennison led the fray in Akoonah Ward, with a total of 1411 first preference votes, with Scott William Dowling following closely with 1191.
Dianne Pagliuca had 859, Mush Rahaman with 820, Kushal Shah with 607 and Patrick Ferdinands with 369.
Akoonah Ward’s count was sitting at 5257 votes and is at 39.73 per cent completion.
For Grevillea Ward, as of 11.57am, John Ternel was leading with 639 first-preference votes, with Carmen Powell at the tail at 601 votes.
Stephen Matulec held 546 votes, with Dave Perry at 527; Bernie Postma has 449, David Parr with 342, Stephen Capon with 285, Sinfree Chirunga with 144 and Haroon Sayed with 123.
Grevillea Ward’s count was sitting at 3646 votes and is at 24.98 per cent completion.
Cranbourne Gardens Ward was holding some big numbers as of 1.30pm, with Michelle Crowther ahead with 2609 first-preference votes.
She was followed by Anthony Lake with 1848, Tamas Kapitany with 1457, Jo Muir with 762, Blessing Nhliziyo with 580 and Mary Beth Melton with 547.
Cranbourne Gardens Ward was sitting at a total of 7803 votes and is at 58.10 per cent completion.
Kowan Ward was holding a tight race as of 11.12am, with Kasuni Mendis just ahead with 667 first-preference votes.
On her tail was Bernard Brian Carr with 662 votes, and just behind was Christine Skrobo with 649.
Shane Taylor had 581, Jawad Erfani with 253, Joby George with 208, Gagan Bumrah with 106 and Raj Nayak with 93.
Kowan Ward had a total of 3219 votes and was at 24.74 per cent completion.
Leading River Gum Ward at 11.50am was Lynette Pereira with 846 votes, followed by Wayne Smith with 609.
Nazir Yousafi had 563, Geoff Hansen with 517, Asher Coleman with 479, Garry Page with 256 and Damien Rosario with 249.
River Gum Ward had a current total of 3519 votes and was at 27.45 per cent completion.
Quarters Ward, as of 1.50pm, had some varying numbers, with Carolyn Eaves leading with 1140 first-preference votes, followed by Ian Wood with 1037.
Craig Baird was close with 838, Kuljeet Kaur Robinson with 682, Aftab Hussain with 669, Jagdeep Singh Sukhija with 551, David Rolfe with 355 and Ridvan Rasimi with 124.
With a total of 5396 votes, Quarters Ward was at 43.93 per cent completion.
Correa Ward, as of 10am, had Gary Rowe leading with 352 votes, followed by Kanu Aggarwal with 279.
Tracey Ryan was next with 264, Abdullah Neshat with 133, Shegofa Naseri with 79 and Onkar Singh Sandhawalia with 36.
Correa Ward had a total of 1143 votes and was at 8.38 per cent completion.
Down south with Tooradin at 1.40pm, Anthony Tassone led with 1259 votes, followed very closely by Jennifer Dizon with 1245.
After a big drop-off, Kuldeep Kaur held 631, Andrew Gai with 553, Ali Yaghobi with 464, Brenton Kelly with 378 and Ravneet Singh with 181.
Tooradin Ward had a total of 4711 current votes and was at 37.06 per cent completion.
Waratah Ward had no clear numbers, but it was confirmed that Stefan Koomen was comfortably leading in Waratah Ward, ahead of Jamel Kaur Singh after 40 per cent of the count.
Kalora Ward had Melinda Ambros in the lead with 2074 votes, with Brain Oates nearby at 1431.
Damien Sawyer was coming close with 1286, followed by Zabi Mazoori with 1175; the ward sat at 63 per cent completion.
Casuarina Ward had Kim Ross leading the pack with 1330 votes, followed by Rex Flannery at 748, Jane Foreman at 745, Lyndon Samuel at 721 and Morteza Ali at 651; the ward was at 45 per cent completion.
For the City of Casey’s participation stats, 193,435 ballots had been returned (78.34 per cent), with the final participation rate for each council area, including Casey, not to be known until the postal receipt period ends at 12pm on Friday 1 November.
As the information is still incomplete, this article will be updated online as soon as new tally numbers and new information on other wards are made available.
