Bob Rogan has been officially declared the winner of Tenterfield’s D Ward by-election held Saturday, August 19 with the decision based on preferences after a close race with nearest candidate Brian Brown.
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Of 301 votes cast at the Memorial Hall polling booth Mr Rogan was the front-runner with 119 first preference votes, with Mr Brown not far behind on 113. Remaining candidate Ted Hartfield was a distant third on 53.
With the majority of voters opting to cast their preference before Saturday, Mr Rogan increased his lead when these early votes were taken into account, arriving at a total of 294 over Mr Brown’s 263. Mr Hartfield had 136 votes.
Only one round of preference distribution was required to give Mr Rogan the win. Returning officer Helen Petrie formally made the announcement at 11am on Wednesday, August 23.
The by-election was called to fill the vacancy left on Tenterfield Shire Council with the passing of Councillor John Martin.
Mr Rogan’s platform was one of community consultation, saying his agenda would be set by ratepayers.
He said it was certainly nice to learn that enough people believed in him and had faith in him to put him into office.
“I didn’t believe in making major promises that I can’t keep,” he said. “I believe in honesty upfront and I’ll do the best I can.”
When it comes to casting his vote in council he said he would apply commonsense rather than emotion. On divisive issues he will be doing the rounds again to canvas ratepayers’ opinion.
Mr Rogan said he’s be sitting in the public gallery at Wednesday’s council meeting before making his way to the returning officer’s office by 11am for the official declaration.
In the campaign phase Mr Rogan said he feels council’s role is to provide basic services, and he will support anything that improves those services and, as a consequence, the lives of local residents.
