1 – Duncan Gair

2 – Graham McLaughlin (Labor)

3 – Grahame Andrews

4 – Gordon Markwart (Greens)

5 – Larry Whipper

6 – Garry Turland

7 – Ken Halstead

8 – Ian Scandrett

9 – Peter Nelson

There is now a 24-hour window before the election is declared tomorrow evening and all councillors are final.

The NSW Electoral Commission website states the preference distribution was completed at 5.01pm today.

The publishing of final results is currently pending.

Preferences are due to be distributed at 5pm and will be online shortly after. We will update this blog as soon as positions become clear.

Wingecarribee Returning Officer Rebecca Harmer said all postal votes received so far today have been counted.

The only votes remaining are any postal votes that arrive before 6pm today, and about 200 votes by those who needed to be added to the electoral roll.

“After that, all clear first preference votes will have been counted,” she said.

The check count and data entry of councillor ballot papers is now taking place at the NSW Electoral Commission warehouse located at Riverwood Business Park.

Ms Harmer said all data entry would be completed by Friday, and a result would follow.

There are now less than 8000 votes left to be tallied.

26,407 formal votes have been counted, while more than 2500 Highlanders submitted unofficial votes – with the informal vote count currently sitting at 8.9 per cent.

The new council team is shaping up and looks as though it will include:

- Duncan Gair and a second (Team E on 18.78 per cent of votes: 4958 first preference votes)

- Graham McLaughlin and a second (Team A, Labor on 16.06 per cent of votes: 4240 first preference votes)

- Grahame Andrews (Team C on 13.57 per cent of votes: 3584 first preference votes)

- Gordon Markwart (Team B, The Greens on 9.73 per cent of votes: 2570 first preference votes)

The final three places will most likely be given to Larry Whipper (8.83 per cent, 2332 votes), Ian Scandrett (8.07 per cent, 2131 votes) and Garry Turland (7.84 per cent, 2070 votes), pending the distribution of preference votes as the NSW Electoral Commission count continues into the week.

25,461 votes have been counted with the top three candidates from last night looking certain to secure their lead.

Duncan Gair holds the majority of votes at 18.59 per cent, followed by Labor (McLaughlin) at 15.97 per cent and Grahame Andrews’ team at 13.73 per cent.

Based on the current quota of 2547, Gair and McLaughlin still look to be on track to each bring in a second candidate from their teams.

The Greens are within 65 votes of the current quota, however, the tight margin between candidates Larry Whipper (8.75 per cent), Ian Scandrett (8.09 per cent) and Garry Turland (7.90 per cent) makes the final three council seats hard to call.

Preference votes could provide a turn up for the books and give Turland a much needed boost to become the seventh councillor on board next term, as his team was preferenced by leading teams Gair and Labor, and Steve Horton’s trailing Community Connect Group (which currently has 5.73 per cent of votes).

Whipper was preferenced by The Greens, while Ian Scandrett campaigned about the fact he would not share votes or make preference deals with any other candidates.

With almost 9000 votes still to be counted, the final three seats on council will be a close race.

Final figures for remaining postal votes are expected to be calculated tomorrow, with all nine councillors to be announced by Friday at the latest.

Thanks for following our live coverage of the 2016 Wingecarribee Shire Council election. With at least 12,000 votes left to be counted we’ll see you back here tomorrow for the latest updates – and hopefully the final announcement of nine councillors for the next council term.

Follow our Twitter coverage of the election here:

Votes lodged at Sydney Town Hall for the Wingecarribee Shire Council election have just been counted and added to the tally, taking The Greens to a total of 2219 votes, meaning they now meet the revised quota of 2203 for a seat on council.

With just under 22,000 votes counted so far, it looks like figures will continue to be updated tomorrow.

It looks to be a safe bet that Duncan Gair (Independent) and Graham McLaughlin (Labor) will each win two council seats, with Grahame Andrews (Independent) and Gordon Markwart (The Greens) joining them.

As for the remaining three seats, as it stands given the incredibly small margin of votes between candidates Whipper (8.36 per cent), Scandrett (8.32 per cent) and Turland (8.29 per cent), preferences look to be a key element in the deciding factor for our final councillors.

Considering Gair’s preferences (in order, to groups: Steve Horton, Grahame Andrews, Graham McLaughlin and Garry Turland) and McLaughlin’s preferences (in order, to groups: Duncan Gair, Garry Turland and Steve Horton) – Garry Turland could see an increase in votes that will take him across the line before Whipper or Scandrett.

The ungrouped candidate with the highest amount of votes is former Wingecarribee Shire Council mayor Ken Halstead. Halstead has received 795 votes, but based on current figures has not met the quota to serve as a councillor.

So far 21,943 votes have been counted and three groups have exceeded the current quota of 2195 votes – meaning Duncan Gair, Graham McLaughlin and Grahame Andrews will have a seat on the next council. Based on the number of votes received by Gair and McLaughlin, their number two candidates will likely join them.

The Greens are one vote below quota at 2194, so Gordon Markwart looks set to have a seat in the Wingecarribee Shire Council chambers.

The next three in contention follow with very tight margins:

- Larry Whipper on 8.36 per cent (1835 votes)

- Ian Scandrett on 8.32 per cent (1825 votes)

- Garry Turland on 8.29 per cent (1820 votes)

Almost 6200 formal first preference votes have been counted and there are three standout teams:

- Grahame Andrews’ team has overtaken Labor, with a 17.65 per cent vote share

- Graham McLaughlin’s Labor team is sitting in second place with 17.44 per cent of votes

- Duncan’s Gair’s team follows with 13.32 per cent

- The Greens have 10.48 per cent

- Ian Scandrett’s team holds 8.25 per cent of votes

- Garry Turland’s team has 8.19 per cent of votes

- Larry Whipper’s team has 8.17 per cent of votes

- Steve Horton’s Community Connect team is currently sitting at 6.55 per cent of votes

Below the Line votes have increased significantly since the last count, with candidates currently placed in the following order:

- Ken Halstead, 201 votes

- Cristian King, 148 votes

- Julia Salter, 89 votes

- Edna Carmichael, 75 votes

- Mark Sainsbury, 70 votes

- Grant Blanchard, 34 votes

The first 1097 formal votes have been counted and Duncan Gair has shot to the lead with 19.33 per cent of first preference votes.

Next up is Ian Scandrett’s team of independents at 12.40 per cent, chased by The Greens at 12.31 per cent and Labor at 12.22 per cent.

Steve Horton’s Community Connect Group and Larry Whipper’s People Power team are neck and neck at 11.67 and 11.39 per cent, respectively.

Looking below the line, Ken Halstead currently has the majority with 26 first preference votes, while Edna Carmichael has 15 and Cristian King has 10.

The New South Wales Electoral Commission (NSWEC) has released the first lot of results for Wingecarribee Shire.

With only 836 votes counted so far these margins will undoubtedly change through the course of the evening, however the current tallies show Ian Scandrett’s independent team in the lead with 16.44% of votes. 

Duncan Gair’s team is close behind with a share of 14.84% of the votes, while Graham McLaughlin’s Labor team sits in third place with 13.9% of votes.

As for the Below the Line candidates, Ken Halstead and Edna Carmichael have stepped out in front – with 2.41 per cent and 1.87 per cent of total votes, respectively.

Polling booths have now closed! Candidates and volunteers are packing up signs and leaflets as NSW Electoral Commission staff begin to count votes.

Voting information is expected to be available online as numbers are released in the hour or so – check back here for regular updates on who your councillors will be!

Meanwhile, here’s a gallery of some happy snaps from voters, candidates and volunteers across the Highlands for the 2016 Wingecarribee Shire Council election.

After some confusion early in the morning with voters lining up outside Bowral Memorial Hall, almost 2000 voters have since found their way to St Thomas Aquinas Church hall to have their say on the next council.

Sausage sandwiches here are raising money for St Thomas Aquinas Church, and were in such demand that volunteers needed to make an emergency dash to restock on snags and onion!

Sausage Sizzle Tally: More than 200 sold, and sold out – twice!

Voters are being greeted with an impressive amount of election volunteers at Mittagong Public School this afternoon.

The Mittagong Public School P&C is raising money with a sausage sizzle and book sale.

About 1700 people had cast their vote by 3pm at this polling booth.

Sausage Sizzle Tally: More than 400 sausages and just about to run out!

The Colo Vale Men’s Shed Sausage Sizzle fundraiser sold more than 120 sandwiches, with the last three sausages going to a very satisfied family at 2pm.

Men’s Shed co-ordinator Greg Power said the men were in dire need of a new shed due to the rapid growth of the group.

“We’ve run out of space – we started with three members about three or four years ago and now we’re up to 27,” he said.

“We’ve been given approval for our development application to build a nice big brand new shed out the back of the hall here, so we’re madly raising money to make that happen.”

About 600 locals have voted at Colo Vale Community Hall so far, with more expected this afternoon.

Sausage Sizzle Tally: About 120 sausages and sold out!

Things are heating up at Yerrinbool with the smell of election day sausage sizzle in the air.

Candidate volunteers are enthusiastically handing out how-to-vote cards to a constant stream of locals.

About 400 people have cast their vote at Yerrinbool Community Hall so far today.

Sausage Sizzle Tally: More than 100 and going strong!