Hobart avoids all-male council but deputy mayor-elect fails to win seat

The Tasmanian Electoral Commission has finalised the count for Hobart City Council. Ben Lohberger, who had been elected to the deputy lord mayor position, has failed to win a seat on the council. What's next? The deputy lord mayor will instead be elected by the councillors at their first meeting. Hobart has avoided electing an all-male council, with two women managing to make the final cut after the final votes were tallied. However, the incumbent councillor who was elected to the position of deputy lord mayor, Ben Lohberger, has missed out on a council seat. "What this means for the deputy is Mr Lohberger won't be able to take up that position of deputy mayor when the council sits as a new council," Tasmanian Electoral Commissioner Andrew Hawkey said. "Under the local government regulations, the process that will follow is the councillors that are elected will fill that vacancy from a ballot around the table." Mr Hawkey said it was a rare scenario that had happened only a handful of times before. "Since 1994, it's probably happened four times before, certainly this is the biggest council that it's happened at; it's normally smaller councils and regional councils." Based on early figures last week, there was a chance Hobart could have had an all-male council, but Louise Elliot was elected seventh, and Zelinda Sherlock elected ninth. Both were members of the previous council. Veteran journalist, Charles Wooley has been elected Lord Mayor. The rest of the council will be made up of John Kelly, Bill Harvey, Ryan Posselt, Simon Behrakis, Harvey Lennon and Mike Dutta.