Stalwart and incumbent Labor mayor Marianne Saliba faced off against independent Chris Homer on Saturday with both out on the hustings vying for voters to put a one next to their name on the ballot paper.

As of Sunday 5pm, Mr Homer led Cr Saliba by 512 votes however only 19,415 votes have been counted out of a possible 55,676.

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Mr Homer has secured 51.39 per cent of the vote but that has not rattled Cr Saliba.

"At the moment one fifth of the voting population has been counted," she said. "So we are going to have to wait until 21 December or thereabouts before we get a result."

Cr Saliba plans on taking a rest after a busy campaign period.

Although Mr Homer is hoping for a "David" victory.

"I checked on the live count and I'm in front which is wonderful, but it's still tight," he said. "It's a David and Goliath story.

"I'm up against a major political party and I had to do five times the work.

"It was extremely mentally exhausting, but I knew I had to take every day and move forward til it was done."

If Cr Saliba does not win the mayoral race she will be off the council having not nominated to be a councillor. In the first time in nine years she faced a direct election.

There are four wards in Shellharbour with two candidates elected from each.

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Independent Kellie Marsh appears to have dominated Ward A with 53.66 per cent of the vote while Labor's Maree Edwards hopes to secure the second spot.

In Ward B Labor is beating the closest competition by just more than 2.5 per cent. Moira Hamilton could win the seat for Labor while another two independents, incumbent councillor Peter Moran and John Davey are battling it out. Ward B will be one to watch and is too close to call.

Chris Homer trails in Ward C against Labor's Lou Stefanovski who has secured 43.28 per cent of the vote to Mr Homer's 38.14 per cent.

Ward D had only two candidates, independent Jacqueline Graf and Labor's Rob Petreski who have been automatically elected.

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