Julie Hall has been announced as the next Whitsunday Regional Council Mayor.
The Electoral Commission of Queensland has declared the result with commissioner Pat Vidgen saying preferences determined the outcome.
“We can only declare the result when the outcome is certain,” he says.
“In close contests like this by-election, a declaration must wait until the deadline for the return of postal votes has passed so preferences from all available ballot papers can be allocated.
“That deadline was 5pm Tuesday and our teams have been counting and re-checking since the close of polls on election day.
“The distribution of preferences happened yesterday when all available votes were to hand.
“When preferential voting is used, the allocation of preferences can affect the outcome, as it clearly has in this by-election.”
Mrs Hall doesn’t have prior experience in government aside from running for One Nation at this year’s federal election.
She says she’s eager to take on the role and will be officially sworn in on Monday.
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