The winner of the Kiama Municipal Council by-election will not be officially declared until Tuesday, 8 September following an extremely close race between the two candidates.
As of the most recent update on the official count from the NSW Electoral Commission at 11.17am on Tuesday 25 August, 13,837 ballot papers had been counted.
Uncle Stan Jarrett holds a lead of 196 over fellow independent candidate Michael Bowden.
He has received 6703 votes to Bowden's 6507, a split of 50.74% to 49.26%. There have been 627 informal ballot papers entered.
The total number of electors in the Kiama local government area is 18,055.
Postal votes will be received by the NSW Electoral Commission until 6pm on Friday, 4 September before the final count is completed the following Monday.
The by-election winner will be sworn in at Kiama Council's next Ordinary Meeting on 15 September.
The official vote count is updated at the NSW Electoral Commission website.
