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The 2022 Adelaide City Council election was held on 12 November 2022 to elect a lord mayor and 11 councillors to the City of Adelaide. The election was held as part of the statewide local government elections in South Australia.[1]
Incumbent lord mayor Sandy Verschoor was defeated by former lord mayor Jane Lomax-Smith. The election proved to be controversial, with unsuccessful candidate and former senator Rex Patrick appealing the result after losing by 52 votes.[2]
Background
At the November 2018 election, six candidates from Team Adelaide were successful, giving the group control of the council.[3] Successful lord mayoral candidate Sandy Verschoor was also linked to the group in media reports.[4][5][6]
In January 2020, Team Adelaide founder and councillor Houssam Abiad resigned. The Central Ward supplementary election in April−May 2020 was won by independent Greg Mackie, leaving Team Adelaide without a majority.[7][8] Mackie later resigned in June 2022, claiming there was "no civility" on the council.[9]
Going into the election, the group was led by Alexander Hyde and composed of Mary Couros, Franz Knoll, Simon Hou and Arman Abrahimzadeh. Jessy Khera was also affiliated with the group, however she did not seek re-election in order to look after a terminally ill relative.[10]
Results
Lord Mayor
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rex Patrick Team | Rex Patrick | 2,734 | 31.88 | +31.88 | |
| Independent Labor | Jane Lomax-Smith | 2,666 | 31.08 | +31.08 | |
| Team Adelaide | Sandy Verschoor | 2,489 | 29.02 | −20.56 | |
| Independent | Vivek Gupta | 391 | 4.56 | +4.56 | |
| Independent | Steven Kelly | 297 | 3.46 | −3.74 | |
| Total formal votes | 8,577 | 99.39 | |||
| Informal votes | 53 | 0.61 | |||
| Turnout | 8,630 | ||||
| Notional three-candidate-preferred count | |||||
| Rex Patrick Team | Rex Patrick | 2,880 | 35.11 | ||
| Independent Labor | Jane Lomax-Smith | 2,761 | 33.66 | ||
| Team Adelaide | Sandy Verschoor | 2,561 | 31.23 | ||
| Two-candidate-preferred result | |||||
| Independent Labor | Jane Lomax-Smith | 3,251 | 50.40 | +50.40 | |
| Rex Patrick Team | Rex Patrick | 3,199 | 49.60 | +49.60 | |
| Independent Labor gain from Team Adelaide | Swing | ||||
Area Councillors
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Adelaide | Arman Abrahimzadeh (elected) | 1,851 | 22.0 | ||
| Independent | Anne Moran | 1,790 | 21.3 | ||
| Independent | Janet Giles (elected) | 1,686 | 20.1 | ||
| Independent Liberal | Domenico Gelonese | 649 | 7.7 | ||
| Independent Liberal | Glenn Bain | 639 | 7.6 | ||
| Independent | Frank Barbaro | 612 | 7.3 | ||
| Independent | Juliette Lockwood | 571 | 6.8 | ||
| Independent | Du Zhigang | 383 | 4.6 | ||
| Independent | Josephine Patterson | 217 | 2.6 | ||
| Total formal votes | 8,398 | 97.8 | |||
| Informal votes | 190 | 2.2 | |||
| Turnout | 8,588 | ||||
North
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Independent | Phil Martin (elected) | 878 | 36.0 | ||
| Team Adelaide | Mary Couros (elected) | 659 | 27.1 | ||
| Independent | Sandy Wilkinson | 410 | 16.8 | ||
| Independent | Valdis Dunis | 289 | 11.9 | ||
| Independent | Robert Farnan | 200 | 8.2 | ||
| Total formal votes | 2,436 | 98.0 | |||
| Informal votes | 50 | 2.0 | |||
| Turnout | 2,486 | ||||
Central
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Independent Labor | Jing Li (elected) | 508 | 15.4 | ||
| Independent | Carmel Noon (elected) | 466 | 14.2 | ||
| Team Adelaide | Simon Hou (elected) | 355 | 10.8 | ||
| Team Adelaide | Alexander Hyde | 338 | 10.3 | ||
| Independent Labor | David Elliot (elected) | 337 | 10.2 | ||
| Independent | Mark Hamilton | 315 | 9.6 | ||
| Independent Liberal | Gagan Sharma | 238 | 7.2 | ||
| Team Adelaide | Franz Knoll | 176 | 5.3 | ||
| Independent | Ben Ayris | 135 | 4.1 | ||
| Independent | Fiona Hui | 119 | 3.6 | ||
| Independent | Alex Radda | 97 | 2.9 | ||
| Independent | Cassandra Papalia | 75 | 2.3 | ||
| Independent | Hugo Siu | 68 | 2.1 | ||
| Independent | Tammy Vo | 65 | 2.0 | ||
| Total formal votes | 3,292 | 97.3 | |||
| Informal votes | 90 | 2.7 | |||
| Turnout | 3,382 | ||||
South
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Independent Greens | Keiran Snape (elected) | 758 | 27.4 | ||
| Independent | Colette Slight | 277 | 10.0 | ||
| Independent Labor | Mark Siebentritt (elected) | 275 | 9.9 | ||
| Independent Liberal | Henry Davis (elected) | 263 | 9.5 | ||
| Independent | Theo Vlassis | 241 | 8.7 | ||
| Independent Greens | Sean Cullen-Macaskill | 199 | 7.2 | ||
| Independent | Ida Jonassen Llewellyn-Smith | 165 | 5.7 | ||
| Independent Labor | Kimberlee Brown | 146 | 5.3 | ||
| Independent Liberal | Helika Cruz | 139 | 5.0 | ||
| Independent Liberal | Tim Scott | 138 | 5.0 | ||
| Independent Greens | Sue McKay | 115 | 4.2 | ||
| Independent | Param Ramanan | 51 | 1.8 | ||
| Total formal votes | 2,767 | 97.3 | |||
| Informal votes | 76 | 2.7 | |||
| Turnout | 2,843 | ||||
Aftermath
Shortly after the election, Electoral Commissioner Mick Sherry announced he was investigating suspected "voting irregularities" in Central Ward, after up to 20 central ward ballots were rejected from the count, including lord mayoral votes.[11]
On 15 December 2022, unsuccessful lord mayoral candidate Rex Patrick appealed the results with a petition in the Court of Disputed Returns and requested the lord mayoral and Central Ward elections be declared invalid.[2]
In December 2023, it was revealed that vote-tallying software malfunctioned, with successful candidate Jing Li's 31-vote margin over defeated councillor Alexander Hyde in Central Ward revised to 24 votes. Hyde has requested the election be declared void and recontested, however as of January 2024, this has not occurred.[12]
References
- ↑ "Council Elections". Electoral Commission SA. Archived from the original on 3 January 2024.
- 1 2 "Rex Patrick to appeal against Adelaide lord mayoral election result over ballot concerns". ABC News.
- ↑ ""Team Adelaide" wins City Council majority". InDaily.
- ↑ "Adelaide Lord Mayor responds to councillor's criticism of her modus operandi". ABC Listen.
- ↑ "Jane Lomax-Smith entry spells poll pain for Team Adelaide, Verschoor". The Advertiser.
- ↑ "'You have to accept democracy': Independents enjoy rare control of Adelaide City Council". CityMag.
- ↑ "Supplementary Election". City of Adelaide. 20 February 2020.
- ↑ "Greg Mackie elected as new central ward councillor". InDaily.
- ↑ "'There is no civility': Prominent city councillor resigns". CityMag.
- ↑ "Patrick, Moran link up to unseat Team Adelaide in council polls". The Advertiser.
- ↑ "Battle of the ballots: Rex Patrick to contest council election results". CityMag.
- ↑ "Adelaide City Council election vote counting software malfunctioned, leading to incorrect count". The Advertiser.