Hills residents will have the opportunity to vote for a new Mayor at the Hills Shire Council Elections on Saturday, September 14th with three candidates nominating for the top spot.
Current Greens Councillor and local vet Dr Mila Kasby has gained the number 1 position on the ticket after the ballot draw on Thursday 15th August. Second spot in the draw was won by former Mayor Liberal Dr Michelle Byrne, leaving the third spot on the ticket to Labor’s Immanuel Selvaraj.
Dr Byrne won Liberal pre-selection by 15 votes over current Mayor Dr Peter Gangemi who will stay on as Hills Mayor until after the election result is ratified by council which could be at the end of September or early in October.
The Mayor at Hawkesbury City Council is elected by councillors rather than residents and will be elected at a special council meeting in late September or October. The Electoral Commission closed nominations for the Local Government elections at noon on Wednesday 14th August and ballots were held at each Electoral Office on Thursday to determine which order candidates will appear on the ballot paper.
The Hills Shire Council is divided into wards and residents can ONLY vote in their wards on election day, Saturday, September 14th. You can find out which Ward you are in on the NSW Electoral Commission website at elections.nsw. gov.au
The following are the candidates for each Hills Shire Ward listed in the order they will appear on the Ballot paper following Thursday’s draw by the area’s Electoral Returning Officer. There are 33 candidates vying for 12 seats in the Hills Shire Council election.
* Denotes sitting councillor.
NORTH WARD Candidates:
GROUP A Labor: Dilvan Bircan, Bassam Sheikh and Kaitlyn Farquhar
GROUP B The Greens: *Mila Kasby, Vida Shahamat and Rebecca Oliveira
GROUP C Liberal: *Mitchell Blue, Jacob Jackson and Brooke Collins
CENTRAL WARD Candidates:
GROUP A Liberal: *Reena Jethi, *Jerome Cox and Manjula Viswanath
GROUP B Labor: Tina Cartwright, Gurdip Singh and Cheung Chai
GROUP C The Greens: Danielle Packer, Samuel Hughes and Seyed Hosseinipour
WEST WARD Candidates
GROUP A Labor: Immanuel Selvaraj, Sook Lee and Lachlan Newland
GROUP B Liberal: *Frank De Masi, *Rosemarie Boneham and Trent Richmond.
EAST WARD Candidates
GROUP A Labor: Evgeniya Grevtseva, Andrew Punch and Senthil Sundararajan
GROUP B The Greens: Suzannah McDonald, Catherine Woolnough, Tian Wong See
GROUP C Liberal: Samuel Uno, Alan Haselden and Leo Wei.
Three councillors will be voted on to represent each ward at Hills Shire Council meaning 12 representatives on council plus the popularly elected Mayor. Interestingly none of the sitting Labor Councillors will be returning to contest their seats and four former Liberal councillors are hoping to return following a bitter pre-selection battle ahead of the 2021 election which saw them fail to be endorsed by Liberal State head office.
Hawkesbury City Council does not have a divided council (Ie a ward system) as all councillors represent the entire area.
There are 10 groups with a total of 62 candidates in the election for the 12 seats on Hawkesbury City Council. With so many candidates we have only listed the top 3 in each group in the order they will appear on the ballot paper. To see full list visit of candidates visit elections.nsw.gov.au
* Denotes sitting councillor.
GROUP A: The Greens: *Danielle Wheeler, Allister Claasz, Matilda Julian
GROUP B: Independent: *Mary Lyons-Buckett, Thomas Aczel, Emma-Jane Garrow
GROUP C: Labor: *Amanda Kotlash, Wendy Davies, Simon Griffin
GROUP D: Independent: *Les Sheather, Andrew Cadman, Kristine Waters
GROUP E: Independent: Robert Gribbin, Melissa Crane, Lynette Brand
GROUP F: Shooters, Fishers and Farmers: *Shane Djuric, Bradley McGregor, Brooke Djuric
GROUP G: Independent: Angela Maguire, Meera Webster, Melanie Carr
GROUP H: Independent: *Nathan Zamprogno, Donna Pellew, David Ball
GROUP I: Liberals: *Sarah McMahon, Mike Creed, *Jill Reardon
GROUP J: The Small Business Party: *Eddie Dogramaci, Rodney Galea, Peter Muscat
Current Deputy Mayor Barry Calvert will not be running for the Labor Party and former Liberal Mayor Patrick Conolly has also decided not to run. Current councillor Paul Veigel is on fourth spot on the Liberal ticket.
To find out who all your candidates are visit https://elections.nsw.gov.au/ You can also check your enrolment details on the site and update your details. It is important to note that there will be pre-polling available before the election but residents can only vote in the ward they live in on election day. You can check your ward and voting site on the Electoral Commission website. Voting is compulsory.
Applications for Postal voting close at 5pm Monday, 9th September.
Pre-poll voting is available from Saturday, 7th September to Friday, 13th September 2024 (excluding Sunday) for eligible electors.
Pre-polling booths for the Hills Shire will be held at:
• Wrights Road Community Centre, Kellyville
• Castle Hill Cultural Centre – The Rebellion Room (underneath Castle Hill Library)
• The Hills Returning Officer’s Office – 15Z Conie Avenue, Baulkham Hills (Community Centre)
All will be open Saturday 7th September to Friday 13th September
• Mon – Wed: 8.30am – 5.30pm
• Thu: 8.30am – 8pm
• Fri: 8:30am – 6pm
• Sat: 9am – 6pm.
Pre-polling booths for Hawkesbury City Council will be held at:
• Richmond School of Arts – 26 West Market Street, Richmond
• Deerubbin Centre Stan Stevens Studio – 300 George Street, Windsor
All will be open Saturday 7th September to Friday 13th September
• Mon – Wed: 8.30am – 5.30pm
• Thu: 8.30am – 8pm
• Fri: 8:30am – 6pm
• Sat: 9am – 6pm.
