By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
FOUR Greater Dandenong councillors have survived scares before being narrowly re-elected in Saturday’s council elections.
The fate of Loi Truong (Lightwood ward), Angela Long (Red Gum ward), John Kelly (Silverleaf ward) and Maria Sampey (Silverleaf ward) hung in the balance until preferences were distributed at 3pm today.
Red Gum candidate Matthew Kirwan also made history as Greater Dandenong’s first Greens councillor.
Ms Long expressed deep relief at the outcome today. She said the result was uncertain despite having an expected favourable flow of preferences.
‘‘You never know if people are going to follow those preferences.’’
This election has delivered eight ALP members into the 11-member council, with one Greens, one ex-ALP member and a former Liberal state candidate.
As predicted yesterday, ALP members and incumbents Youhorn Chea, Roz Blades, Peter Brown and Jim Memeti were comfortably returned.
First-timers IT professional Sean O’Reilly and lawyer Meng Heang Tak, also ALP members, were voted in.
Mr O’Reilly, who topped the Lightwood ward poll, said his ‘A Clean Start’ campaign was based on listening.
His electoral platform of cleaner streets in Springvale and Springvale South was gleaned from a community survey he sent out at the start of his campaign. By chance, it coincided with a council workers’ strike that caused piles of litter to blight Springvale’s shopping district.
‘‘The council strike demonstrated how bad it can get.’’
He said he’d press for a greater share of investment and facilities for Springvale, and for the council to promptly and effectively deal with resident requests and complaints.
Mr O’Reilly said it was hard to gauge the effect of the Saigon Square issue, which pitted incumbents Youhorn Chea and Loi Truong against one another.
This campaign, Mr Chea’s primary vote dropped from 38.9 per cent to 27.7 per cent — still suffice for comfortable re-election.
A pro-Saigon Square group ‘We The People’ waged electoral war against sitting councillors Chea, Brown, Blades, Maria Sampey and Yvonne Herring — who had voted down Saigon Square as a name for a public space in Springvale this year.
The group backed Mr Truong and three other candidates across Greater Dandenong.
‘We The People’ organiser Trung Doan said the group’s campaign resonated beyond the Vietnamese community.
‘‘I do notice that some of the candidates who disrespected the people had their votes coming down.
‘‘Many of the votes for our Vietnamese-born candidates were over the Vietnamese population in each ward.’’
