By Violet Li
Former Liberal member and councillor Gary Rowe won the 2024 Casey Council election and will represent Correa Ward in the next four years.
Mr Rowe addressed the public at the result declaration in Bunjil Place on Friday 8 November, saying he was honoured and emotional about the result.
“It’s emotion for what the staff and everybody have had to go through in relation to everything they’ve had to do over that 5-year period,” he said.
“And it’s something that I was determined to do. Come back and be a real difference with the rest of the councillors to the people of Casey.
“It’s been a long time for the community.”
To be elected in Correa Ward, a candidate is required to secure an absolute majority vote of 8410.
For the primary votes, Gary Rowe topped the race at 4961 votes. Labor member Kanu Aggarwal had the second most primary votes of 4193. Tracy Ryan had 3555 votes, Labor member Abdullah Neshat 2148, Shegofa Naseri 1226, and Onkar Singh Sandhawlia 736.
In the first round of the preferential distribution, Onkar Singh Sandhawlia’s votes went to the voters’ next preferred candidate. Kanu Aggarwal received the most preferences. She was allocated 470 votes.
In the second round of the preferential distribution, Shegofa Naseri’s 1266 votes went to the voters’ next preferred candidate. Abdullah Neshat had 582 votes (46 per cent), and Kanu Aggarwal received 413 votes (32.6 per cent). Abdullah Neshat and Shegofa Naseri publicly preferenced each other on their how-to-vote cards.
In the third round of the preferential distribution, about 42.7 per cent (1197) of Abdullah Neshat’s 2805 votes went to Tracy Ryan. Kanu Aggarwal received 960 votes at this round and Gary Rowe 648. Abdullah Neshat previously placed Tracy Ryan at number three on his how-to-vote card. At the end of this round, Kanu Aggarwal surpassed Gary Rowe by about 200 votes.
In the last round of the preferential distribution, Gary Rowe received 3786 votes passed on from Tracy Ryan, while Kanu Aggarwal was only allocated 1178 votes. Gary Rowe and Tracy Ryan publicly preferenced each other.
Gary Rowe won with 9605 votes, about 2000 votes more than the second place.
Ms Aggarwal thanked everyone who supported her and voted for her on her Facebook.
“I am proud of myself that I secured second position getting 4193 first preferences,” she said.
“I did whatever I could for the best interest to run for a successful and honest campaign without any negative intentions, but I learned that there are other contributing factors (not necessarily logical) to gain success in council elections.
“I want to put pressure on the fact that I run for council elections without any supporting candidate (supporting candidates are those candidates who purely stand in election for another candidate so that their preferences can flow to the candidate to whom they are trying to help).
“I am not an ex-MP, ex counsellor etc but still I managed to mount a strong challenge that my fellow candidates have to collect all their resources to give me a fight back.”
Mr Rowe is the only former councillor who was sacked amid an IBAC anti-corruption inquiry in 2020 who got re-elected in this year’s Casey Council election.
