Ben Shields and his numerous team left Wednesday night’s ballot draw happiest after his groups took number one spot in all three wards with multiple groups.
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The majority of candidates for the September 9 election were in attendance at the Returning Office on Wednesday night for the draw. It was expected to start at 6pm but delays in Sydney meant it didn’t start until closer to 7pm.
Mr Shields and Tyler Przerada are group A in the North ward after they were the first picked in the ballot, while Merrilyn Mulcahy and Ben Ellis are Group B. Jane Diffey will appear in an ungrouped column.
Mr Shields’ team in East ward, of Dayne Gumley and Lisa James, will have the privilege of being group A after they were also drawn first. The Country Labor group of Stephen Lawrence and Cody Jones will be group B, while Ana Pateman and Chris Edwards will appear first and second in the ungrouped column on the paper.
In Central Ward, the group of Vicki Etheridge and Nikki Catelotti, also part of the Ben Shields team, was drawn as group A, with the group of John Ryan and Josh Black group B. Greg Matthews was the first name drawn in the ungrouped candidates, followed by Kris Stevens.
The South ward contained just one group, the Ben Shields team candidates of Greg Mohr and Shayne Stiff, while for ungrouped candidates Manny Portelli was drawn first, followed by Douglas Prior and Kevin Parker.
Wellington was the only ward not to feature groups. Former mayor Anne Jones will sit at the head of the candidate list on the ballot, followed by Mark Griggs, Mike Augee, Adam Ryan, Jacob Perry and David Grant.