Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle waits on the result for the council elections. Picture: Eugene Hyland Source: Herald Sun
LORD Mayor Robert Doyle is set for a triumphant return to Town Hall with his team blitzing rivals in the city council elections.
While official counting of votes is not due to start until tomorrow, Cr Doyle is estimated to have picked up at least 40 per cent of the lord mayoral primary vote as ballots were today opened and sorted in preparation for the count.
The Victorian Electoral Commission had about 130 people sorting through 66,000 ballots at Town Hall from 8am.
It was expected to take up to 12 hours.
Scrutineer and former Labor Party campaign manager Ray Collins has developed a keen eye for spotting voting trends after 35 years in the role and was quick to predict a landslide win for Cr Doyle.
Mr Collins also said he observed that Liberal voters were sticking together.
"There's high leakage from the Morgan ticket to the Doyle ticket," he said.
By late this evening the results will begin to be announced.
Other scrutineers said that an anticipated big challenge from the Greens didn't occur, with the party's lord mayoral candidate Dr Alison Parkes polling only around 16 per cent.
Another high-profile candidate, former deputy lord mayor Gary Singer, who headed a ticket with John So junior as his deputy, is believed to have received a similar vote to the Greens.
Serial lord mayoral candidate Gary Morgan and his deputy, businessman and former Carlton Football Club president John Elliott, only managed to secure about one-in-10 votes, scrutineeers said.
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If these figures are confirmed by tomorrow's count it will be a dazzling re-election for Cr Doyle and deputy Lord Mayor Susan Riley, who ran on a campaign of safety, liveability and planning for growth.
The team has pledged to introduce more CCTV cameras to the inner city and build another super taxi rank in the CBD to help cope with the flood of late night revellers on weekends.
Cr Doyle, who described the campaign as the dirtiest ever, was subject to an unsubstantiated claim that his lead councillor candidate Kevin Louey asked developers for big cash donations in return for special access to Town Hall.
However, Cr Louey has been returned to council and the Doyle team can expect to have at least five seats out of 11 on the new council.
It is expected that new Doyle team members Arron Wood and Beverley Pinder-Mortimer will be elected, but the future of Cr Carl Jetter remains in doubt.
The Greens should have two people elected - sitting councillor Cathy Oke and Rohan Leppert.
Cr Jackie Watts, who ran on the Morgan-Elliott ticket, will be back, as will Cr Ken Ong, who was lead councillor candidate on the Singer-So ticket.
Expected to make a return to council is former lord mayor Kevin Chamberlin, who ran on Brian Shanahan's ticket.
The final council seat is expected to be a battle between Cr Jetter, Crikey website founder and shareholder activist Stephen Mayne and Richard Foster.
About 61 per cent of registered voters took part.
All councils across Victoria held elections except for Brimbank, which is still in administration.
The poll was conducted by post, except for 8 councils: Banyule, Glen Eira, Greater Dandenong, Knox, Moreland, Port Phillip, Stonnington and Yarra.
Votes for these councils will be counted tonight, while the postal ballot municipalities will have theirs counted tomorrow.
Meanwhile, team leader Hayley Brown, responsible for one sorting team of 16 at Town Hall today, had stories to tell about the lead-up to the election.
Ms Brown, who has been working at the Town Hall for the past six weeks, said the phone started ringing "off the hook" three weeks ago.
While some people were calling to enquire about replacement ballot papers, one woman simply called to dispute the colour of the ballot paper.
- with Therese Allaoui and Julia Rabar
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