Jo Galer remains in the box seat in the Dunedin City Council by-election, but her lead over Aaron Hawkins has been cut to 250 votes.<\/p>\n
She had been 746 votes clear when progress results were released on Tuesday, after about 85% of returned ballots had been counted.<\/p>\n
Preliminary results were released last night and they showed the race had tightened up. There were 548 special votes yet to be processed. A final result is expected today.<\/p>\n
Ms Galer said last night the situation was nerve-racking.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018I\u2019m ready to live with whatever result there is,\u2019\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018If it\u2019s not to be, it\u2019s not to be.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018It\u2019s an uncertain situation.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
A win for Mr Hawkins still appeared unlikely, but Ms Galer was prepared to consider the possibility.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018I might be the bridesmaid \u2014 if that\u2019s the case, I\u2019ll live with it.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Second-placed Mr Hawkins said on Tuesday a different outcome was mathematically possible, but highly unlikely.<\/p>\n
He could not be reached for comment last night.<\/p>\n
A by-election was required to replace Cr Jules Radich, who died in January.<\/p>\n
Fourteen candidates stood for the position.<\/p>\n
The by-election was run under the single transferable vote (STV) system, which involves voters ranking candidates.<\/p>\n
Under STV, the least-favoured candidate drops out one by one and their votes are reallocated in accordance with voter preferences.<\/p>\n
When it came down to the final two candidates, preliminary results had Ms Galer on 10,087 votes, ahead of former mayor Mr Hawkins on 9837.<\/p>\n
More than 31,000 people voted in the by-election. Voter turnout was sitting at 32.84%.<\/p>\n