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Kavinda Herath/Stuff
Gore District Council mayoral candidate 23-year-old Ben Bell.
Mayoral candidates who are eagerly awaiting local body election results in Gore and the Southland District may have to wait until Friday to find out who has the top job.
Rob Scott, who is leading a tight race for the Southland district mayoralty, said he had been told results would not be available until Friday.
“I rang the election place this morning to try and find out what was going on, because I couldn’t understand why it should take so long to count 100 votes,’’ Scott said.
“They explained the process to me, and it’s not as simple as just opening an envelope and counting a piece of paper. Special votes all have to go to the Electoral Commission in Wellington to be verified and apparently there’s 35,000 of them around the country.’’
READ MORE:
* Bell preparing for job as Gore’s new mayor, while Hicks won’t rule out a recount
* Mayoralty mayhem: emphatic change for Invercargill but breathtakingly close calls for Gore and Southland
* Too close to call: the mayoral races where a few votes could change the result
A Southland District Council spokesperson confirmed vote counts including specials were likely to come in on Friday.
Scott said after his discussion on Wednesday morning he was confident the wait would not go past Friday.
“It’s hard, because I blew myself out during the campaign, and now I should be relaxing a bit. You try not to let yourself too into your head about what you could be doing. I really want the job, but I don’t know if I have it yet and I don’t want to get ahead of myself,’’ he said.
At the last update of provisional results, Scott led Geoffrey Young by 18 votes, with the incumbent, Gary Tong, a further 15 votes back in third place.
Tong said he would be officiating at a wedding on Friday.
”Life goes on, but it’s an incredible situation we’re all in,’’ he said.
”The thing is, I’m still mayor but it’s not business as usual for me – there’s only so much I can do. I really feel for the candidates around the country, their families and friends and even the media who are waiting on these results to come through.’’
Ben Bell, who has a slim majority over incumbent Gore district mayor Tracy Hicks, said he had not heard anything official, but he also believed it would be Friday before results are announced.
“I haven’t heard anything personally, but I believe the council has been told that,’’ he said.
In the Gore district, 67 special votes needed to be verified and counted to determine the outcome of the election.
“I’ve had to wait an extra week more than everyone else to find out so what’s an extra day?”
On Saturday, some Southland district voting papers were delayed in getting to Christchurch after the flight they were meant to be on from Invercargill was cancelled. The voting papers were driven to Queenstown and put on a flight there.
On Monday, Scott told Stuff he had spent all day Sunday waiting to hear results and had not heard from anyone until after 8pm.
On Monday, returning officer Robyn Rout estimated there were less than 100 special votes, but they had to be validated by the electoral commission before they were counted.
Electionz.com returning officer Anthony Morton said no further update was available.
“The final results will be released when all processing and reconciliation has been completed for each council.’’
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