There was no winner after the first round of ballot counting in the race for mayor in London.
But one candidate appears closer to victory than any other. Ed Holder has a commanding lead after the first round of voting. He leads with 33,042 votes. Paul Paolatto is next with 21,456, Tanya Park has 19,656, while Paul Cheng has 19,161. The next round of counting will begin at 10 a.m. Tuesday, and that's when things could get very interesting. Jonas White, who recieved 111 votes, will be dropped from the ballot and the second and third place votes will be distributed. It is possible that multiple rounds of counting will be needed to get any candidate beyond the 50 per cent plus 1 threshold needed for victory.
The first round results in the race for mayor were released early Tuesday morning, hours after the polls closed and after results for the ward races were released.
Ward 6Ccouncillor Phil Squire was the first winner to be announced. He was declared the winner after the first round of counting, receiving 69 per cent of the first place votes. Not long after, Mo Salih was declared the winner in Ward 3. The incumbent defeated Harry Prince by more than 2,000 votes.
Michael van Holst joined the list of incumbents who were able to celebrate victory on Monday night. He held on to his Ward 1 seat with 2,581 first place votes, 35 more than he needed to get to the 50 percent plus one threshold. Josh Morgan was also re-elected, taking almost three-quarters of the votes in Ward 7. Jesse Helmer, facing a challenge from the former councillor he defeated in the last election, was re-elected in Ward 4. He defeated Stephen Orser, who ran on an anti-BRT platform. In Ward 11, Stephen Turner was re-elected with 54 per cent of the vote.
Two incumbents felt the sting of defeat. After more than 20 years on council, Ward 2's Bill Armstrong was defeated by Shawn Lewis. In Ward 10, Paul Van Meerbergen won back the seat he lost to Virginia Ridley in the 2014 election. He defeated the incumbent by just over 1,300 votes.
Voters in six wards will have to wait until Tuesday to learn who their councillor will be. The races in wards 5, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14 did not see any candidate reach the 50 per cent plus one threshold.
While Londoners wait to find out who will be their next mayor, residents of surrounding communities were able to learn the results of their elections on Monday night.
In St. Thomas, former MP Joe Preston was elected mayor, defeating incumbent Heather Jackson by approximately 540 votes.
Woodstock Mayor Trevor Birtch was re-elected, defeating runner-up Shawn Shapton by over 1,700 votes.
Despite allegations of bullying at city hall, Sarnia mayor Mike Bradley was re-elected.
However, Chatham-Kent Mayor Randy Hope was defeated by Darrin Canniff. Hope finished third, behind Canniff and runner-up Alysson Storey.
Joanne Vanderheyden cruised to re-election as mayor of Strathroy-Caradoc, defeating Brian Derbyshire by almost 3,500 votes.