"I would have liked to," said Ryde mayor Bill Pickering outside his home on Sunday. "Had I not been a bit woozy I might have."

Cr Pickering, who "blacked out" and was taken to hospital after the incident outside a polling booth at a Putney primary school on Saturday, said he had undergone scans and his injuries were "nothing that I won't recover from in a couple of days".

"Other than a bit of stiffness and soreness, a little bit of swelling, a few headaches, I'm OK," he said.

"It could have been a lot worse, given the circumstances."

However, the mayor declined to detail the exact circumstances that led to a confrontation with independent candidate Vic Tagg, who allegedly threw the punch that knocked him into a garden bed.

Cr Pickering said he had been advised "certain things were being said that were quite defamatory" when he arrived at the booth to hand out sandwiches and thank volunteers.

But he said he had been speaking with a couple "being berated" rather than "the other person" when he was allegedly struck in the jaw.

"Fortunately I fell into a garden bed and I think that actually made things a lot easier, but I think I may have blacked out for a little while," Cr Pickering said.

"I did get up, I did walk, and then I collapsed again."

Cr Pickering described his relationship with Mr Tagg – also a former Liberal mayor of Ryde – as "cordial but not, how shall we say, on a friendly basis" before the incident.

Police were yet to confirm whether they had spoken to Mr Tagg as of Sunday afternoon. "Our inquiries are still continuing," a police spokeswoman said.

According to Channel 9 News, Mr Tagg blamed Cr Pickering for his outburst.

"Bill told people I was a crook and corrupt ... I snapped," Channel 9 quoted Mr Tagg as saying.

The East Ward council byelection was triggered by the resignation of former mayor Ivan Petch, who was found by ICAC to have engaged in corrupt conduct.

Cr Petch, who was suspended by Local Government Minister Paul Toole, resigned in December after failing to overturn the corruption findings in the Supreme Court.

The corruption watchdog also recommended the Director of Public Prosecutions examine whether Mr Tagg should be pursued for breaches of campaign donation laws.

Cr Pickering is the campaign director for Mr Tagg's Liberal rival Jane Stott, who had been standing next to Cr Pickering before the incident.

Ms Stott leads Labor's Penny Pedersen and Mr Tagg in the count, before preferences.

The Electoral Commission NSW said a distribution of preferences would not be finalised until Tuesday morning after all the votes in the mail have arrived on Monday.

"It's a three way race but the smart money is on the Liberal Party candidate although we won't know until Tuesday. Anything can happen," an Electoral Commission NSW spokesman said.

Mr Tagg did not respond to requests for comment.

with Su-Lin Tan and Luke Malpass