Rodney Stevens
The seat of Clarence in the 2023 NSW election has been won by Nationals candidate Richie Williamson, who received more than 50 per-cent of the vote, but there were some surprise results among the other seven candidates.
As counting continued, with 77.6 per-cent of the total vote counted, the NSW Electoral Commission website vote summary for the seat of Clarence showed Legalise Cannabis Party candidate Mark Rayner had attracted 7.32 per-cent of the vote, or 3240 votes as at 10am on Monday, April 3.
This placed Mr Rayner third out of eight Clarence candidates for total votes received at this stage of counting, edging out The Greens candidate Greg Clancy who scored 7.19 per-cent of the vote, or 3182 votes, and Community Independent Debrah Novak who, with 3012 votes received 6.8 per-cent of the total votes.
The only candidates who got more votes in Clarence at that stage than Mr Rayner were Labor’s Leon Ankersmit, who received 9625 votes or 21.74 per-cent of the total vote, and the new Member for Clarence Richie Williamson, with 22,514 votes, or 50.84 per-cent of the total votes.
Of the remaining Clarence candidates at this stage of counting, Independent Nicki Levi had received 1157 votes or 2.61 per-cent of the total vote, Sustainable Australia Party’s George Keller got 908 votes or 2.05 per-cent, and the Indigenous Aboriginal Party’s Brett Duroux received 645 votes or 1.46 per-cent of the total votes.
According to the NSW Electoral Commission, there were 57,265 voters enrolled in Clarence on March 6, 2023, and there was a total of 46,059 votes counted as at April 3, comprising 44,283 formal votes, and 1776 votes or 3.86 per-cent of the vote informal.
At this stage of counting with 80 per-cent of the votes counted, the two-party preferred result has Richie Williamson leading with 65 per-cent of the vote, or 24,459 votes, while Labor’s Leon Ankersmit sits on 13,089 votes or 35 per-cent of the total vote.
Traditionally considered a safe Nationals seat, Mr Williamson will be hoping to increase the Nationals margin of 14.5 per-cent in Clarence as counting continues.
The seat of Clarence has been held by the Nationals since 2003, when former Labor Member for Clarence Harry Woods retired, the Nationals candidate Steve Cansdell was narrowly elected and managed to increase his margin in the 2007 and 2011 elections.
Mr Cansdell was succeeded by the Nationals Chris Gulaptis as Member for Clarence in 2011, after a by-election was called.
Mr Gulaptis was then re-elected in 2011, 2015 and 2019, before announcing his retirement prior to the 2023 election.