Mayoral counting stopped for night
8.45pm UPDATE - The returning officer has stopped counting mayoral votes for the night and will resume tomorrow morning. The result is going to be incredibly close and noone cant predict the outcome at theis stage.
with 21,137 votes counted, Gail Sellers holds a miniscule lead. she has 50.36 percent of the vote, compared with Craig Butler's 49.64 percent. Only 150 votes separate the two with more than 14,000 votes left to count.
Whoever wins, the loser will almost certainly call for a recount.
Votes in the Councillors election are starting to trickle in
6pm UPDATE - And there it is. 6pm and the polling booths have closed. The candidates will now retire to their own little gatherings to either celbrate victory or reflect on defeat. They (and us) will start to have a clearer idea of results by 7pm, when some of the vote-counts start coming in from the polling booths.
We'll have the results for you as they come.
Make sure you keep an eye on gladstone.com.au throughout the evening.
10.30 UPDATE - The flow of voters is starting to increase. Out at Kin Kora, numbers started to pick up by about 10am and supporters of the candidates were busily giving out pamphelets.
It seems incredible to think how many volunteers have stepped up to help their favourite candidate.
By 10.30am it was still difficult to know who was winning all the votes. Conversations with voters leaving the polling booths seemed to indicate an even split between the two mayoral candidates, incumbent Gladstone Regional Mayor Gail Sellers and Cr Craig Butler.
8.40am UPDATE - Polling booths have opened across the Gladstone region as 22 candidates hope to be one of 8 selected. Two mayoral candidates are also competing for the top job.
A rainy morning might have kept some voters in bed a little later than usual and the crowds were thin just after the 8am start.
