Inverell Shire's newest batch of councillors vote for Paul Harmon as mayor and Kate Dight as deputy mayor

Former mayor Paul Harmon has again been elected into the top position after receiving the majority in a secret ballot.

Back at the last elections in 2016, Cr Harmon was voted back in to the top seat unopposed.

His previous deputy for the tenure was Anthony Michael, who was the only nominee at the time, who did not run again this year.

Councillor Kate Dight put her hand up for deputy, and was successful in obtaining the majority of votes.

Councillor Di Baker also threw her hat in the ring for both the mayor and deputy mayor title. Unsuccessful, she accepted defeat graciously by congratulating both Cr Harmon and Cr Dight.

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All councillors took their oath on Wednesday afternoon, watched by a much smaller gallery than last time thanks to Covid-19 reservations.

Over 40 people attended at the last swearing in; just nine showed up for the 2022 batch.

This year's election results saw a landmark number of women chosen to represent Inverell in November.

With 11 candidates to chose from, the nine then voted on who would lead them.

Six candidates were grouped into three above the live teams led by Di Baker (Group A), Paul Harmon (Group B) and Paul King ( Group C). The remaining five candidates stood as independents.

Both Di Baker (22.95 per cent of formal votes) and Paul Harmon (24.14 per cent) were the first to be elected, closely followed by Mr Harmon's running mate Kate Dight ( 8.94 per cent) and Group C lead Paul King (8.08 per cent).

Di Baker's Group A running mate Jo Williams (6.86 per cent) was next, then Paul King's Group C member Wendy Wilks ( 4.70 per cent).

First timer Nicky Lavender ( 6.73 per cent) was next on the ladder, followed by John 'Jacko' Ross (4.86 per cent) and Stewart Berryman (5.99 per cent).

Across the local government area, 12,871 residential and non-residential electors were enrolled to vote on October 25.

Of those, 10,592 turned out to vote - 82.29 per cent - and of those who did, 6.66 per cent voted informally and were not counted.

The two candidates who were not elected were Phil Girle and former councillor Jacki Watts.

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