The unbearable wait to see who will be the newest councillor grows ever more suspenseful, as preference counting for Griffith City Council byelection continues.
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When the first preference votes came in over the weekend the results were too close to call; Glen Andreazza had 3213 votes, Damien Marcus had 2490 votes, Bill Lancaster with 2078 votes and Greg Adamson with 2069 votes.
With nobody getting enough votes for a majority to win, it came down to the distribution of preferences.
After days of furious preference counting at the returning officer's office at 81 Kooyoo Street, the race was still too nail bitingly close to call by the time the office closed on Tuesday at 5pm.
The returning officer had anticipated a final result on Tuesday, but the votes were so close that they had only narrowed it down to three possible candidates after five rounds of preference counting.
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Counting will resume at 8am on Wednesday and the returning officer said they are expecting the counts to be finalised later in the day.
Once the winner is declared it will put an end to the exhausting campaigning that began when prepolling opened on February 4.
A spokesman from the NSW Electoral Commission said the final result was coming soon.
"We expect the distribution of preferences to be completed by 12 noon on Wednesday," he said.
"The results will be available on our website at that time and following the 24 hour window for a recount, it’s anticipated that the declaration of the elected candidate will take place on Thursday afternoon."
Council was forced into the byelection when former councillor Paul Snaidero was disqualified from civic office due to being convicted for assault occasioning actual bodily harm against his former wife.
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