The Lower South West welcomes 11 new councillors

The Lower South West will have 11 new councillors sworn in across the region’s councils following the local government elections on Saturday.

The Shire of Manjimup had three council seats available, the Shire of Bridgetown-Greenbushes five seats while Boyup Brook had three seats.

In Manjimup, long-time educator, Mr Miolin, was the front runner in the council election, taking home 28.98 per cent of the vote on first preferences.

Jayde Darin will also serve on council for four years after finishing second with 16.68 per cent of the vote.

Missing out on the role of Shire president, Wade De Campo has been elected for two years to fill the vacancy created by Cr Donelle Buegge with her election as president.

“Obviously, it’s not the result that I was looking for, but to serve the community in any form is humbling,” Mr De Campo said.

“I’m happy to be on council to be able to provide experience, assist the president in any way she needs and look out for our community.”

This was the first time a shire president in Manjimup has been popularly elected and Mr De Campo said the voting system has changed local government forever.

“It will be a lot more expensive to run as you need to run a campaign now,” he said.

“It will cost a lot more and be more time consuming to do that, its essentially the beginning of politicising local government in the regions.

“If there’s only a two horse race like we had, you need to do a lot more because you need to attract significantly bigger numbers of votes to win.

“However, having said that, I like the idea because you have a mandate, as a president of what you campaigned for.”

In the Shire of Boyup Brook, the three seats were secured by David Inglis with 43.13 per cent of the vote, followed by Darren King and Michael Wright.

In the Shire of Bridgetown-Greenbushes the five elected were Jenny Mountford with 27.12 per cent of the vote, followed by Mike Fletcher, Tony Practico, Lyndon Pearce and Rebecca Redman.

All of the votes from the election were counted on October 21.