Townsville mayoral by-election closing in on a result after many vote early

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Townsville voters are casting their ballots early as the city's mayoral by-election campaign enters its final days. It's the largest full postal ballot ever conducted by Queensland’s Electoral Commission with 142-thousand electors enrolled.

Transcript

00:00The ballots are out and Townsville voters have been quick off the mark.

00:07Returning more than 40% of postals before election day.

00:11I received mine about two weeks ago and I sent it off within a couple of days.

00:14We've actually posted it today and certainly having postal ballots I think is a great move forward.

00:19Did it straight away as soon as I got it in the mail.

00:21The Crime and Corruption Commission has finished its investigation into allegations against former Mayor Troy Thompson

00:28regarding his military, business and education credentials.

00:34A draft public report is yet to be released. It hasn't stopped him from running again.

00:40I didn't lie and there was no intention to mislead anybody and I certainly didn't do that and there's no criminality in it.

00:47Mr Thompson has 30 days to review the report.

00:50Look, there's nothing to defend. It's not going to go to court.

00:53And if it does, my lawyers said we'll walk out successful.

00:57Candidates include former MP Nick DiMetto and Acting Mayor Anne-Marie Greeney.

01:02Voters aren't asking much of them.

01:05Do what they said they were going to do. Mostly.

01:07As long as someone honest and does the proper job.

01:09Start fixing the roads.

01:11Experts say having nine candidates on this ballot means the count could take longer.

01:16Especially as most candidates are leaving preferencing up to voters to decide.

01:22Only one of them actually suggested a preference count for their voters.

01:26So there are less indications of where those preferences are going to go.

01:30The ECQ believes most votes will be returned by Saturday.

01:35We would be expecting at least 75% of the ballots to be returned. I'd love it if there are more.

01:40To resolve long running uncertainty for voters.

01:47milli-

01:52Sign suites.

02:01It's fine.

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