The final votes have been cast as polls close in the New South Wales council elections, but Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore spent Saturday afternoon apologising after a rival’s campaign poster was removed and replaced with her own.
Independent candidate Yvonne Weldon took to social media on Saturday to claim one of Moore’s volunteers had taken her corflutes in Redfern, hidden them in a car and replaced them with posters in support of Australia’s longest-serving mayor.
Ms Moore, who is fighting to keep the keys to Sydney City Hall after 20 years in office, apologised for the incident.
“I am sorry this happened. It should not have happened at all. I am told the volunteer was instructed to correct and replace the item immediately,” Moore said in a statement.
Ms Weldon, an Indigenous candidate, said the incident was disappointing, unacceptable and “emblematic of why we need change”.
The election was already dramatic after being marred by a ‘monumental error’ which saw 140 Liberal candidates in 16 councils miss out on nomination due to a shocking administrative error which meant they were not nominated in time.
Several councils face an inevitable swing to the left after the Liberals’ headline-grabbing blunder, which saw about 140 endorsed candidates fail to be nominated.
Elections in 14 council wards have been cancelled altogether due to a lack of candidates. These areas have been declared uncontested zones and candidates will be elected unopposed.
Clover Moore has apologised to a rival councillor candidate after her poster was removed from near a Redfern voting booth and replaced with one of Ms Moore.
A supporter of Indigenous candidate Yvonne Wheldon found her sign inside someone’s car after it was taken down and rehung.
Meanwhile, 140,000 voters in Sydney’s fast-growing south-west were given the chance to have their say in the much-publicised fight between Liverpool’s Liberal mayor and the Labor state government.
Labour had sought to address alleged serious mismanagement and dysfunction at the council and delay the election, but ran out of time due to legal challenges from the mayor.
The Liberals’ absence will also likely see councils in Penrith, Camden, Northern Beaches and Blue Mountains shift to the left, although the Liberals could gain seats in Parramatta.
Vote counting for the 2024 NSW local elections is underway after the last vote was cast at 6pm on Saturday and will continue for four hours before resuming on Monday.
A third of eligible voters had cast their ballots early while more than five million people made their choice in 128 councils.
“Our staff will have a very long day today after an early start, and a long night of counting is about to begin,” said Acting NSW Electoral Commissioner Matthew Phillips.
Ms Moore, 78, is among 37 mayors standing for election and political analyst Ben Raue warned against reading too much into recent reports that she might not keep her job.
Posters are displayed during the New South Wales local council election day at Bankstown Public School
NRL player Will Smith poses for a photo during the New South Wales local council election day at Redfern Town Hall in Sydney
“If you look at the Clover vote, it tends to go up and down,” the founder of election website Tally Room told AAP.
“It’s hard to see who would be able to beat her.”
Earlier, Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig urged residents to contact the candidates so they could make an informed decision, as councils spend more than $22 billion a year on services and infrastructure.
The first municipal election since the national housing crisis began was also a test of whether affordable housing policies could succeed at the local level.
More than 50 candidates, including Ms Moore, have pledged their support to the pro-development group Sydney YIMBY.
David Borger, who chairs a pro-development alliance that includes Sydney YIMBY, said it was outrageous that so many people were lining up to block new housing “in the middle of the worst housing crisis we have ever seen”.
Not all areas were forced to go to the polls: rural residents of Cowra, Junee and Berrigan enjoyed an election-free Saturday after the number of nominations equalled or fell short of the seats available.