NSW council election results 2024 as it happened: Counting concludes; Clover Moore claims victory in City of Sydney

In 45 years of contesting elections, Clover Moore has never lost one – or even looked like losing one. That was true again on Saturday.

By 8pm, it was clear that while Moore’s vote was going backwards, it was still high enough to ensure she would retain the job she has held – without being seriously challenged – for the past 20 years.

No one seriously thought Moore would be in trouble. Even if there was a sense among some voters that two decades is a long time for anyone to be in power, there was no clear alternative who they could embrace with certainty and enthusiasm.

At its most simple, Moore offers dependable, progressive, independent leadership that is free of scandals and corruption. For most City of Sydney residents, that’s enough.

However, voters may test Moore – and check her power – by robbing her of the council majority she has enjoyed for 20 years. Early results this evening showed the Greens and Labor polling well at council level.

Read the full analysis here.

And as we hit 10pm, electoral workers across the state are stopping the count for the evening.

No counting will be done on Sunday, but they’ll return first thing on Monday.

There’s a huge amount of work to be done: counting tonight has only looked at first preferences, and in many tight races, it’s the later preferences that will decide the final makeup of some councils.

Clover Moore has claimed victory and will serve an unprecedented sixth term as lord mayor of Sydney.

She arrived at her post-election event just before 9.30pm and did not immediately tell supporters she had won.

But later she told the Herald it was clear that based on preference flows from previous elections she would secure enough votes to hold on to the mayoralty.

She said Chinatown and Oxford Street, affordable housing and action on climate change would be among her priorities for her sixth term.

With more than 6,000 votes counted in Liverpool, incumbent Liberal mayor Ned Mannoun has 44 per cent of the vote, ahead of Labor’s Betty Green on 24 per cent.

There are eight other candidates polling single digits or less.

The new council faces a months-long public inquiry after a report released in mid-July detailed a list of serious allegations of misconduct, described by local government minister Ron Hoenig recently as “the worst I’ve seen of any council”. Mannoun dismissed the report as full of errors and politically motivated.

North Sydney mayor Zoe Baker has taken an early lead in the council’s St Leonards ward, where there is a dearth of Liberal candidates due to the party’s nominations debacle.

Baker, of the Real Independents, has 45 per cent of the councillor vote with 1300 ballots counted. She’s followed by Labor’s Godfrey Santer on 22.4 per cent and independent James Spenceley on 21.5 per cent. The area takes in about 49,000 voters.

In the Cammeraygal ward, endorsed Liberal candidate Jessica Keen is in front with 31.4 per cent of 900 votes counted. Real Independents candidate MaryAnn Beregi has 18.1 per cent of the votes.

The Greens’ Angus Hoy and Labor’s Shannon Welch are neck-and-neck – both have 17 per cent of votes.

Independent Pallavi Sinha, who is a Liberal Party member, has secured 4.74 per cent of votes. Controversial former mayor and outgoing councillor Jilly Gibson campaigned for Sinha, who led a group of independents who touted themselves on social media as Team Jilly.