Team Doyle is sitting pretty

Team Doyle looks set to form a majority Melbourne City Council. 

With the official result being still some days away from when Docklands News went to press, most pundits were backing Lord Mayor Robert Doyle to be returned with the power to govern in his own right.

Joining Cr Doyle will be Cr Arron Wood as deputy lord mayor and councillors Kevin Louey, Nicholas Reece, Tessa O’Sullivan and Susan Riley.  If he gains six out of 11 places, Cr Doyle will have unprecedented power in his third successful term as lord mayor.

It is expected that Greens councillors Rohan Leppert and Cathy Oke will be returned, leaving three remaining councillor positions.

Most expect Queen Victoria trader Michael Caiafa to win a spot with the last two places to be contested between Philip Liu and councillors Jackie Watts and Stephen Mayne.  

Docklands was potentially able to contribute 10,989 votes (out of a possible 133,805) at the October 22 election. However, an analysis of these figures show that there were more non-residential votes in Docklands than local residents registered with electoral commission.

While Docklands has an estimated population of more than 8000, only 4041 are registered to vote.  In contrast, there are 6948 non-residential voting entitlements in Docklands – comprising 5160 non-resident owners, 920 owners of corporations, 33 occupier ratepayers and 835 corporations.

It is possible for four votes to be awarded to a single property under Melbourne’s voting system – two for the property’s owners and two for the business occupying the premises.