Long-time councillor Sue Moore leads the vote count to continue as Mayor following the Singleton Council election.
Mrs Moore is quietly confident of keeping the top job after 12 years following initial counting of votes on the weekend.
She currently has 47% of 6,400 first preference votes counted so far.
Fellow councillor Danny Thompson has 33% and Labor candidate Peree Watson 19.5%.
Watson’s running mates Patrick Thompson and Tim McGeachie and Independent businessperson Anne McGowan look to be the ones who will miss out on a seat in council.
Jeff Drayton leads the count in Muswellbrook Shire after the counting of 1900 votes after the close of polls on Saturday night.
His Group attracted 369 first preference votes so far followed by the other two groups, De-Anne Douglas 249 and Max Morris 184.
Newsagency owner Rohit Maharjan comes in next with 111 votes.
Muswellbrook was set to smash pre-polling predictions with a late rush of votes on Friday morning.
Initial counting appears to show voters want change in the Upper Hunter Shire.
At the close of counting of first preference votes late on Saturday night Maurice Collison had obtained the most votes with 538.
New candidate Troy Stolz from Merriwa followed close behind with 512, Murrurundi’s Peter McGill 494 and George Fraser 456.
Former Deputy Mayor James Burns is struggling to remain on council after collecting just 263 votes so far.
That puts him in tenth position with only the top nine elected.
Counting will resume today.
