Although Tom O’Connor holds 65.24 per cent of the primary vote to Charlotte Field-Sampson’s 32.02 per cent, the counting is not finished yet and the NSW Electoral Commission is not scheduled to to declare it’s final decision until Wednesday.
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With postal votes still being received and counted, 1749 ballot papers from polling booths are now being check counted. Mr O’Connor gained 1141 votes while Mrs Field-Sampson took 560 and 48 informal votes.
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Mr O’Connor was the previous Uralla Shire Council general manager for seven years and director of Corporate and Community Services for four years before to that. He is 77-years-old, retired and said prior to the ballot that, if elected, he could replace some of the experience lost by the late Kevin Ward’s resignation.
Elections are not easily won.
- Tom O'Connor
“Pretty well all of the time Kevin was on the council, I was in administration, so there would be no loss in corporate knowledge with me coming back on,” he said.
“A lot of people would know me from my role as general manager, and, ah, some of those people would know me badly.”
He laughed.
“But, we did well. We got through the amalgamation issues. From the time I became general manager to the time I retired, we were virtually in defence mode all the time. So, the community knows my commitments to this community, and we retired here.
“So, we’re known to love our community, work for our community and we’re both still involved in a lot of things in our community.
Unless something totally unexpected happens, it seems 28-year-old Charlotte Field-Sampson hopes of starting a long career on council may have to wait a little longer.
“My husband is on the council as well. My Mum used to be on the council, so I feel like it would be good to pick up her spot, I guess,” she said prior to the weekend’s ballot.
It was her hope that another young face on council would help the young families in Uralla feel better represented.
