Newcastle lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes has survived a challenge for Labor preselection before the September local government elections, but former ABC radio presenter Carol Duncan has lost her seat in ward two.
Cr Nelmes won 134 votes to challenger Ross Kerridge's 104 on Saturday to hold on to her position as Labor's lord mayoral candidate.
Cr Nelmes said on Saturday afternoon that she was "pleased to have been decisively reselected by local rank-and-file members as Labor's candidate for lord mayor at the September 2024 council election".
"Since being elected in 2014, we have worked hard to achieve remarkable change in our great city and I look forward to continuing this important work," she said.
Dr Kerridge said the challengers' results in the lord mayoral and ward preselections were a "tremendous achievement for a campaign without the benefits of incumbency" and "sent a very strong signal to the party hierarchy of the need for a change in direction".
Eligible Labor members across the local government area's 12 branches lined up at Trades Hall on Saturday to cast their preselection votes for lord mayor and for councillors in their respective wards.
Preselection was decided for lord mayor and in wards two and three, but wards one and four remain up in the air due to voter eligibility challenges.
The Newcastle Herald has been told Cr Duncan in ward two is the only incumbent Labor councillor who will lose preselection, though other party sources said ward four could be close as well.
Ward-one members appeared to return deputy lord mayor Declan Clausen as their number one candidate 46-34 against Newcastle Labor local government committee member Sandra Feltham.
The result was not declared officially due to outstanding eligibility challenges, but Cr Clausen appears all but certain to win.
Cr Duncan lost her winnable position on top of Labor's ward-two ticket 45-33 against Adamstown branch member Paige Johnson, who will try to become the first transgender woman elected to office in NSW.
Female candidates receive a 20 per cent loading on their vote totals under Labor's affirmative action policy, but Cr Nelmes did not have to rely on that provision to win.
Cr Nelmes won 134 raw votes or 161 including the loading.
Cr Nelmes also ran on top of a ticket in ward three, winning 28-18 over challenger Linda Barter.
The lord mayor will lead a ticket ahead of incumbent councillors Peta Winney-Baartz and Margaret Wood but will vacate the ward position, as she did in 2021, if she wins the city-wide lord mayoral vote.
The ward-four ballot ended with 15 votes for incumbent Elizabeth Adamczyk, eight for challenger Tahlia Kelso, one for incumbent Deahnna Richardson and one for Mary Harrington, who was second on Ms Kelso's rival ticket.
Ms Kelso's team suggested she had a pathway to victory, but Cr Adamczyk's supporters said it was unlikely she and Cr Richardson would lose their top two positions on the ticket after the eligibility challenges and distribution of votes.
The Herald understands Labor's Internal Appeals Tribunal could take weeks to decide 11 eligibility challenges in ward four.
