Three leading contenders in Melbourne’s lord mayoral race have refused to rule out doing a preference deal with the Greens as they battle to secure the city’s top job.
Despite campaigning for weeks, Lord Mayor Nick Reece and candidates Arron Wood and Anthony Koutoufides yesterday all declined to reveal where their preferences would fall.
The three candidates are understood to be in “ongoing” negotiations with the other tickets on the 11-team ballot ahead of the deadline for preferences closing at midday Monday.
The Greens’ candidate Roxane Ingleton, who is expected to poll strongly, also would not declare her preferences.
A spokesman for the Reece campaign told the Herald Sun that preference negotiations were continuing.
“We will preference tickets that closely align with our values of Getting Good Done for Melbourne.”
A Team Kouta member said: “Our focus is to get Anthony Koutoufides elected as Lord Mayor for Melbourne and Intaj Khan as Deputy Lord Mayor.”
And Arron Wood said his team would talk with other candidates about preferences.
“Those discussions are ongoing,” he said.
The uncertainty comes as independent candidate and anti-bike lane campaigner Anthony Van Der Craats secured the vital top spot on the ballot paper.
Mr Van Der Craats is running a ticket with running mate David Cragg called Rip Up The Bike Lanes. Mr Van Der Craats said he was not opposed to all bike lanes but said traffic management in the city had not had enough review and discussion.
“I would like to see an expert committee established … to give us some input into how best we review them.”
Mr Reece, the current Lord Mayor was drawn fourth on the mayoral ballot, while Anthony Koutoufides was sixth and Arron Wood seventh.
Mr Koutoufides said sixth position out of 11 was OK.
“Everyone obviously loves the first or second position, but six is good,” he said. “I’m always going to look at the bright side. It could be worse.”
Bottom of the 11 teams was Labor’s Phil Reed while the Greens’ were ninth and the residents-based Voices for Melbourne ticket was 10th.
Ms Ingleton shrugged off the Greens’ low position.
“I like to think that people who vote Green know exactly how to find us on a ballot paper. They’re usually pretty intelligent people.”
Ballot papers will be mailed out from October 7, with voting to close on October 26.