The two major parties have dominated the first preference voting in the local government elections except for one ward where former Gosford mayor Lawrie McKinna has forged ahead of his rivals in the counting as at noon on Wednesday.
McKinna’s Team Central Coast group in the Gosford East ward had more than 1,000 votes ahead of the Labor candidate Sharon Walsh and 3,000 ahead of the Liberal’s Jared Wright.
In the Gosford West ward, which saw more Independents stand than in any other ward, the vote for Independents was higher than average but still the Liberal and the Labor candidates were out in front with the Independents left to fight it out for the third spot.
Meanwhile, the counting for the referendum has started but only some of the pre poll votes have been counted and the Central Coast has 260,000 voters.
The referendum asked if residents wanted to reduce the number of councillors from 15 to 9 and the wards from five to three.
The major parties and many independents advocated a no vote.
The Electoral Commission website is not yet showing a true indication of the count as it is still showing up as 50 50 per cent for yes/no in some booths. This was because on the Saturday night, the vote was simply to see if the number of votes returned matched the referendum papers given out.
If the yes vote wins, it will be implemented at the 2028 council elections.
About 20 per cent of residents voted early at the 10 pre poll sites but most voting took place at 101 polling booths across the Coast on Saturday, September 14.
The Electoral Commission will not be officially declaring the election result until sometime between October 1 and 3 and postal votes can continue to arrive until until 6pm, Friday, September 27 but the trends are consistent in the first four days of counting.
The trends show Labor will get a councillor in each of the five wards and the Liberals will get a councillor in each of the four wards where they stood candidates.
Team Central Coast will get a second councillor in Kayla Daniels in the Wyong Ward.
Doug Eaton, president of the Warnervale Branch of the Liberal Party, stood as an Independent in the Budgewoi Ward and he is polling well in second position to the Labor Party but the result will come down to preferences.
The candidates who are expected to hold their quotas to become councillors are split between former councillors and new faces.
Those with councillor experience expected to win their seats are ex-senator/MP/councillor Belinda Neal (ALP Gosford West); ex-mayor Lawrie McKinna (Team Central Coast, Gosford East); ex-Central Coast councillor Kyle Macgregor (ALP, Wyong); and ex-Wyong councillor John McNamara (Lib Wyong).
The new faces are expected to be Rachel Stanton (Lib, The Entrance) and Margot Castles (ALP, The Entrance); Trent McWaide (Lib, Gosford West); Sharon Walsh (ALP, Gosford East); Jared Wright (Lib, Gosford East); Kyla Daniels (Team Central Coast, Wyong); and Helen Crowley (ALP, Budgewoi).