Independent Gordon Bradbery looks set to claim victory in the race for Wollongong lord mayor, with the former Church on the Mall reverend commanding a 10 per cent lead on Liberal challenger John Dorahy with 72 per cent of first preference votes counted.As vote counting resumes this morning, Mr Bradbery holds 33.9 per cent of the primary vote, while Mr Dorahy has 23.4 per cent.Labor’s Chris Connor has so far polled 19.7 per cent of first preference votes.Mr Dorahy conceded defeat at 10.30 last night, calling Mr Bradbery to congratulate him.Mr Dorahy is likely to claim a seat on the new council and last night said he looked forward to working with Mr Bradbery as lord mayor.But despite the numbers showing almost certain victory for Mr Bradbery, he remains unwilling to declare himself the winner.‘‘I just want to see those final figures,’’ he said this morning, not wanting a repeat of the state election campaign which saw him declare an early victory only to be piped at the post by Labor’s Noreen Hay.Mr Bradbery insisted at the time he was merely thanking supporters.Early results indicate the new-look Wollongong council will be made up of four Liberals, four Labor candidates, two Greens and two independents.In Shellharbour, the Liberals will join Labor councillors on a new seven-seat council.According to NSW Electoral Commission officials, final mayoral results may not be clear until Tuesday morning, after the final postal votes are received on Monday afternoon.The same conditions apply to the election of councillors in Wollongong and Shellharbour.

Read our updates as election night 2011 unfolded (click Single Page for the best view)

10.40PM: Gordon Bradbery may not have declared victory yet but Labor's Chris Connor believes the reverend will win, saying he is looking forward to working with him as mayor on council."I'm confident Gordon has the numbers and if he is duly elected I'll be very happy to work with him and I hope he'll take hold of some of the plans Labor has shared with the community."Mr Connor said his team did remarkably well locally despite a tough political climate, and had improved voter confidence in the Labor brand.10.30PM: Liberal John Dorahy has conceded defeat, calling independent and likely lord mayor Gordon Bradbery to congratulate him on his expected victory.Speaking to the Mercury just minutes ago, Mr Dorahy said the latest polling numbers meant it was ‘‘highly likely’’ Mr Bradbery would be mayor.‘‘He deserves it and I look forward to working with him on the council,’’ he said.Mr Bradbery has yet to claim victory.10PM: Little change in new numbers from the NSWEC:Bradbery: 33.6 per centDorahy: 23.3 per centConnor: 19.5 per centIndependent and former council GM Rod Oxley is sitting on 2.7 per cent, or 2,173 votes.9.30PM: John Dorahy says he's not ready to declare his chances at Wollongong's top job over but admits the 10 per cent gap between himself and independent Gordon Bradbery would be "hard to claw back". "I'm not prepared to give up yet but I expect on these numbers with 50 per cent of the votes counted it would be hard to claw back."Despite the seemingly disappointing end to Mr Dorahy's lord mayoral campaign he said he was ecstatic at the overall performance of the Liberals in the election. "At the end of the day my goal was to make improvements to the Illawarra and Wollongong by making the seat of Keira a marginal seat in the state election and make sure I was able to give the people of Wollongong, and particularly people living in ward two, someone to rely on to in the council to help with their causes," he said."The Liberals have taken an historical step in evening out the balance of political beliefs on council and I'm incredibly proud of the role I have played in that."9.05PM: Mr Bradbery is now 6,946 votes ahead of John Dorahy on primary votes, with 55.4 per cent of votes counted.According to the NSWEC, the current split is as follows:Bradbery: 33 per cent.Dorahy: 23.2 per centConnor: 19.6 per cent9PM: The mood is upbeat in the Bradbery camp in Wollongong as the former Church on the Mall reverend polls well ahead of his Liberal challenger John Dorahy.But despite the good numbers, Gordon Bradbery has admitted to feeling rather "tenuous" as results of today's election pour in, saying he doesn't want the repeat "lingering" of the State election results. "I'll wait to see the final result, it'd be nice to have one by the end of the night," he said. Mr Bradbery has run a low key race this election compared to his State election run, but says his focus has been on grass roots campaigning. "I have a profile already out there so it's been about continuing what got me there in the first place," he said. "I'm pleased with the results so far, I hope the figures are indicative of how it will all work out." Mr Bradbery said he was also happy to have taken on the two big parties as an independent.8.30PM: Mr Bradbery’s lead has now more than doubled to 2,948 votes, with 37, 273 counted, or about 27 per cent.Mr Dorahy has 8,069 votes, while Labor's Chris Connor has garnered 7,096 so far.8.15PM: Independent lord mayoral candidate Gordon Bradbery has a lead of more than 1200 votes on Liberal John Dorahy in the race for Wollongong’s top job.The latest figures from the NSW Electoral Commission (NSWEC) show that with 21,463 votes counted, Mr Bradbery had 6,147, while Mr Dorahy had secured 4,882.7.54PM: Independent Liberal lord mayoral candidate John Dorahy is ahead as the very early stages of counting get underway in Wollongong tonight.As of 7.46PM, 7,014 votes had been counted - about 15 per cent - of which Mr Dorahy had garnered 1,739 and Mr Bradbery 1,261.Independent candidate Greg Petty had 958 votes counted in his favour.The preliminary results show Mr Dorahy polling best in Helensburgh, while Mr Bradbery had pulled the most votes at the Fernhill booths.The NSW Electoral Commission will continue to update its count throughout tonight, but final results may not be known until as late as Wednesday, the commission has warned.Wollongong returning officer Vic Miglionico said postal votes would not close until 5pm Monday and distribution of preferences, if needed, would take place Tuesday.6.50PM: Rod Oxley has said he does not hold any real expectations of winning today’s lord mayoral race, but is still glad he stood for the city’s top job.The former Wollongong City Council general manager said he spent most of his day campaigning at Wollongong’s town hall where he described the mood as ‘‘fairly positive’’.‘‘There was no adverse reactions, people took my how-to-vote card and there was good camaraderie between those handing out for other candidates,’’ he said.‘‘I’m pleased I ran the race and fulfilled what I set out to do which was be on the ballot.‘‘I don’t have any real expectations of winning the seat of lord mayor, but I’m fairly positive about the day I’ve had and I’ll see how that translates into the number of votes I get.’’Mr Oxley said he had about 30 booths manned with people giving out his how-to-vote cards, with each person saying they had received positive responses from voters.‘‘There was the odd person apparently who said ‘I’m not voting for that bastard’, but I think some people probably said that about other candidates too,’’ he said.‘‘I enjoyed the day.’’Michael Organ said he had been encouraged by what appeared to be strong interest in the Community Voice ticket.‘‘As soon as we said independent a lot of people’s ears pricked up,’’ he said.‘‘Community Voice is new so getting our message out there will take time.‘‘Coming from a zero base [of support] it will be really interesting to see the numbers we get.’’6.30PM: Mercury editor Stuart Howie reports that frontrunner Gordon Bradbery is said to be ahead by a ''country mile'' at one of Wollongong's larger polling booths.6.15PM: Independent lord mayoral candidate Alice Cartan spent the day campaigning at Helensburgh, but couldn't predict how the race would end tonight.She labelled it ‘‘incredibly hard to gauge’’.‘‘Up at Helensburgh I just couldn’t get a feeling for it,’’ she said.‘‘There were definitely Gordon Bradbery supporters, some Labor supporters and a number of Liberal supporters, many of them young people.‘‘I’d say there was definitely a large Liberal presence at all the booths I visited, the blue shirts were everywhere.’’Mrs Cartan said voters were as a whole polite, but many refused how-to-vote cards, saying they had already made up their minds.Thirroul resident Rhonda, who did not wish to give her last name, had already made up her mind when walking into the Thirroul Community Hall polling booth.‘‘I voted for Alice Cartan for lord mayor and councillor,’’ she said on exiting the polling centre.‘‘She’s local, she seems to be across the issues and have lots of energy to promote the community,’’ she said.‘‘I’m traditionally a Labor supporter but I broke that tradition today.‘‘I just think the party hasn’t served us well in the past 20 years. It’s promoted itself above and beyond the community and that’s not sat well with me.’’3.15PM: Good old fashioned leg work gained Liberal lord mayor candidate John Dorahy a vote from Unanderra's Andrew Blizard. Mr Blizard, who cast his vote at Wollongong Town Hall this afternoon, said Mr Dorahy's early morning presence at Unanderra train station during the campaign was a good sign of his commitment."He seemed very approachable and a nice guy who was willing to get his hands dirty," he said. Meantime, Wollongong resident Kerry said Gordon Bradbery's high moral values earned her vote. "With past councils we've had some embarrassing times," she said."With Gordon he has a proven track record in high moral standards."2.20PM: Labor’s Chris Connor is campaigning across the city, and said the reception is sometimes cool.‘‘There’s still a feeling it’s tough for Labor,’’ he said.‘‘But we’re doing the best we can and we’re hoping to lift the Labor vote in the area.’’Mr Connor said Dapto residents who are speaking to him at the Hayes Park booth have two main issues on their minds.‘‘The Fowlers Rd bridge and fixing up West Dapto, and the general run down state of roads, gutters and footpaths.‘‘Residents feel the southern suburbs have suffered from underfunding.’’Liberal lord mayor hopeful John Dorahy said the feeling he’s received from booths he has visited has been positive.‘‘I think it’s been positive but I’m not going to get ahead of myself,’’ he said.‘‘Where I’ve been so far the volunteers on the booths have suggested it’s been positive.‘‘We went to the Ribbonwood Centre at Dapto this morning, which you’d say is a strong Labor area, but people were telling us they’d had a gutful of Labor and they want change.’’But Mr Dorahy admits only time will tell the real result.‘‘For me it comes down to no matter who is elected to council, it’s about how they interact to make sure they do what the community requires.’’