Fougere re-elected, four new faces on city council

Mayor Michael Fougere will be returning for a second term, and city council will see some new faces.

Fougere was re-elected after getting over 70 per cent of the vote.

“I want to thank the voters of Regina for their confidence in the vision and the purpose of my campaign and the campaign of all people running for city council,” Fougere said in his election speech. “The vision of growth, prosperity for the future, investment and long-term sustainable growth in the city.”

This is Fougere’s second term as mayor. He was first elected as mayor on Oct. 24, 2012 after serving for five terms on city council representing the residents of Ward 4 in southeast Regina.

“It’s a tough job. You’ve got to work hard, you’ve got to listen to what people tell you and you try to use your best judgment to make the best decisions that you can.”

Tony Fiacco came in second place with 11.5 per cent of the vote, Jim Elliott received 9.29 per cent, Wayne Ast received 6.78 per cent of the vote and Evangeline Godron received 2.16 per cent of the votes.

REGINA CITY COUNCIL

Regina city council will have four new faces when council meets again.

Ward 1’s Barbara Young, Ward 2’s Bob Hawkins, Ward 5’s John Findura, Ward 7’s Sharron Bryce, Ward 8’s Mike O’Donnell, and Ward 10’s Jerry Flegel were all re-elected to council.

In Ward 3, Andrew Stevens was elected to city council, receiving 65.4 per cent of the vote.

“It’s going to be an exciting time going forward,” Stevens said. “There’s a lot of issues in our ward around crumbling infrastructure, if we want to talk about infill development, densification, this is where’s it’s all going to happen.

Ward 3 was previously represented by Shawn Fraser, who decided to not seek re-election.

In Ward 4, Lori Bresciani narrowly defeated incumbent Bryon Burnett by 59 votes. There is the possibility a recount may occur.

Ward 6 will have a familiar name representing them. Joel Murray, son of outgoing councillor Wade Murray, won the seat with 26.65 per cent of the vote.

“I feel relieved but very honoured,” the 26-year-old said. “Very, very honoured to be chosen among my peers to represent the citizens of Ward 6.”

Murray said he will use his age to his advantage and use social media as a way to engage with residents.

With the passing of Terry Hincks, Ward 9 will have a new face representing them.

Jason Mancinelli was elected after receiving 53.88 per cent of the vote.

“Basically I had a campaign on my merit and my name recognition in Regina,” Mancinelli said.

 DELAYED RESULTS

Results from the polls were delayed by about 90 minutes.

Chief Returning Officer Jim Nicol believes it wasn’t the vote counting technology itself, but rather the transmission and transfer of information.

“In today’s technological world and instant information, it’s not good enough. I am disappointed. There’s nobody to blame, this happened, but that is frustrating,” he admitted.

Candidates waited in the chamber of city hall for an extra hour-and-half before the winners’ names were read aloud manually off a sheet of paper.

“A bit from the 90s, but we had to get it out to you. That’s what’s important is that you’ve got the information and we are confident that those numbers are accurate.”

Nicol said they’ll be reviewing the city’s contract with the firm responsible for overseeing the electronic voting system to see what exactly what wrong, what guarantees there were and if any money could be recouped.

Voter turnout was lower than the 2012 civic election with only 20.4 per cent voter turnout.

All results are unofficial and the city will release the official numbers on Friday.