Cade Lucas
Five of the six former Maribyrnong mayors who contested last month’s elections have failed in their bids to return to council, with controversial former state upper house MP, Catherine Cumming and council’s longest serving member, Michael Clarke, among those to have missed out.
By contesting the Bluestone ward, Ms Cumming was seeking to return to Maribyrnong council where where she served for 20 years before moving to state parliament as Western Metropolitan MP between 2018 and 2022.
However, despite leading on first preference votes, Ms Cumming was defeated by entrepreneur Pradeep Tiwari 54 per cent to 45 per cent after preferences were distributed.
In Wattle ward, Mr Clarke, a three-time Maribyrnong mayor who served for 14 years across two stints, did even get that far, coming in third on first preferences with 23 per cent of the vote, well behind independent Miles Parnall-Gilbert on 31 per cent and the Greens Elena Pereyra on 30 per cent.
After preferences, Ms Pereyra narrowly prevailed, 50.8 per cent to 49.1.
In Bundap ward, after a nail biting race where all seven candidates polled between 10 and 20 per cent on first preferences, anti-racism campaigner and social advocated Mohamed Semra won with 53 per cent after distribution over Le Thuy-Kim on 46 per cent.
In River ward, ALP aligned Susan Yengi defeated former mayor Cameron McDonald 53 per cent to 46 per cent after the distribution of preferences.
Former mayor and sitting member Anthony Tran finished second on first preferences with 22 per cent, but failed to make the final two after distribution.
Community activist Samantha Meredith was elected in Saltwater, finishing ahead of another former mayor, John Cumming, 56 per cent to 44 per cent after preferences, while in Sheok, the Greens sitting councillor Bernadette Thomas won with a thumping 61 per cent of after preferences, well ahead of Paul Nam-Le on 38 per cent.
The one former mayor who will be on Maribyrnong council for the next four term is the most recent one, with outgoing mayor Cuc Lam easily winning Braybrook ward with 52 per cent after preferences, roughly double that of second placed Greens candidate Chris Wilson on 26 per cent, with Catherine Robertson third on 21 per cent.
