By Violet Li
Former Green member and councillor Lynette Pereira won the 2024 Casey Council election and will represent River Gum Ward in the next four years.
River Gum Ward went through a recounting during the weekend of 9 and 10 November. Ms Pereira won with almost 2000 votes over the second spot before and after the recounting.
Ms Pereira, a former councillor from 2008 to 2012, addressed the public at the result declaration in Bunjil Place on Monday 11 November, saying she had been waiting 12 years to get back into council.
“I’ve been volunteering for over 30 years. My campaign has been going for a very, very long time,” she said.
“So this means a lot to me, and I didn’t enjoy my experience very much with the other councillors. It was quite toxic, as many of you would know.
“I’ve actually had the good fortune of meeting quite a few of the candidates that have now been elected, and I’m stoked. I’m very, very pleased with the people that are going to be with me.
“I have high hopes that we become an exemplary council, and we do follow all of all those rules, full of integrity, doing the right thing, actually representing residents who put us here. I’m passionate about that.”
Ms Pereira also spoke about the waste transfer station in Hampton Park that had recently been approved by Casey Council.
“This is going to be one of my priorities that I will be focusing on, and I’ve already started working on that,” she said.
“There’s a lot of people who are very upset and disturbed about this, so I’m going to be focusing my attention on that.”
To be elected in River Gum Ward, a candidate is required to secure an absolute majority vote of 7560.
Lynette Pereira won the primary votes and led every round of preferential distribution.
For the primary votes, Lynette Pereira topped the race at 3691 votes. Labor member and former councillor Wayne Smith received the second-highest votes at 2535. Independent Nazir Yousafi had 2351 votes, Freedom Party member Geoff Hansen 2280, former Green member Asher Coleman 2111, Liberal member and former councillor Damien Rosario 1117, and Labor member Garry Page 1033.
In the first round of the preferential distribution, Garry Page’s 1033 votes went to the voters’ next preferred candidate. Asher Coleman received the most at 310 votes and Geoff Hansen the second most at 274.
In the second round of the preferential distribution, Lynette Pereira was allocated most of Damien Rosario’s preference votes. She received 468 votes. Wayne Smith obtained 254 votes.
In the third round where Nazir Yousafi’s 2557 votes were distributed among the remaining candidates, Asher Coleman received the most at 833 votes. Nazir Yousafi and Asher Coleman publicly preferenced each other. Geoff Hansen and Lynette Pereira were allocated a similar number of votes at 687 and 702 in this round.
In the fourth round where Wayne Smith’s 3284 votes were distributed, Lynette Pereira obtained a majority of 1537 votes. Asher Coleman and Geoff Hansen were allocated a similar number of votes at 872 and 875 in this round. Wayne Smith publicly preferenced Lynette Pereira and he put Asher Coleman at number 3 and Geoff Hansen at number 7 on his how-to-vote card.
In the last round where Asher Coleman’s 4294 votes were distributed, Geoff Hansen received 2265 votes and Lynette Pereira 2029. Asher Coleman publicly put Lynette Pereira at number 3 and Geoff Hansen at number 7 on his how-to-vote card.
Lynette Pereira won with 8551 votes, almost 2000 votes ahead of Geoff Hansen.
