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Harvie has lead as early results come in

The campaigning is over, ballots have been cast and polls are now closed as the early results begin to come in for the 2018 municipal election for Delta council and school board.

The campaigning is over, ballots have been cast and polls are now closed as the early results begin to come in for the 2018 municipal election for Delta council and school board.

In the contest for the mayor’s chair George Harvie has the lead with three advance polls reporting with Jim Cessford in second place and Sylvia Bishop in third.

Alicia Guichon is leading the council candidates followed by Lois Jackson, Dan Copeland, Jeannie Kanakos, Bruce McDonald and Param Grewal.

Laura Dixon leads school trustee candidates followed by Daniel Boisvert, Nick Kanakos, Erica Beard, Jessie Dosanjh, Val Windsor and Bruce Reid.

This year’s campaign has six vying for the mayor’s seat that’s being vacated by Jackson after six terms. It’s been a campaign that has been particularly heated as former city manager Harvie, two-term councillor Bishop and former police chief Cessford are seen as the leading contenders to replace Jackson. There’s also three independents – Moneca Kolvyn, Alex Megalos and Vytas Vaitkus - in the race for the mayor’s chair.

Meanwhile, the council race, which featured only 13 candidates last time, has a field of 20, including Jackson, who is running for a council seat. Fourteen of the council candidates are part of the three main slates, while there are also six independents in the race.

The race for the seven school trustee positions sees all but one of the incumbents seeking re-election. Seventeen are running for the school board, a mix of mostly slates but a few independents as well.

The 2014 election finished with a 31.8 per cent voter turnout, but it looks like that will be well exceeded this time around if the numbers for the three days of advanced polls are any indication. Overall, 5,175 cast a ballot at the advanced polls, compared to just 2,246 in the last election.