by Cam Lucadou-Wells
ALP member and favourite Phillip Danh has become Greater Dandenong’s newest councillor after a narrow win in the Yarraman Ward by-election.
After preferences, Danh (2654 votes) took out the postal ballot by 107 votes from former councillor Peter Brown (2547).
A law student from Noble Park, Danh has served as a former electorate officer of Bruce MP Julian Hill and also the late Dunkley MP Peta Murphy.
He’d previously run for Greater Dandenong Council in 2020, finishing a close second to Cr Tim Dark in Keysborough Ward.
During this month’s by-election, he campaigned strongly against privatising Greater Dandenong Council aged and home care services while also calling for greater youth engagement.
Greater Dandenong is publicly yet to decide whether to continue in-house support for residents over 65 or with disabilities.
No changes will occur before June, and not without a council resolution.
Danh led the 13-candidate Yarraman field comfortably on first preferences with 1189 votes (23 per cent) ahead of Brown (888 votes, 17 per cent) and ALP running mate Alexandra Bryant (499 votes, 10 per cent).
Other high-profile Labor members Zahra Haydar Big (306 votes), Thay-Horn Yim (ninth, 258 votes) and Sam Afra (last, 133 votes) were outside the top six.
The full run-down of first preferences were:
Danh 1189, Brown 888, Bryant 499, Melinda Yim 389, Rahima Rizai 363, Robert Lim (Greens) 332, Haydar Big (ALP) 306, Will Billings 290, Thay-Horn Yim 258, Susantha Abeysinghe 204, Ahmed Shukri 181, Tevyn Gov 169 and Afra 133.
Preference flows favoured Brown, a former Labor member now running as an independent, and top-of-the-ballot Rizai who finished third.
The candidates finished in the following order after preferences:
Danh, Brown, Rizai, Melinda Yim, Bryant, Lim, Haydar Big, Billings, Thay-Horn Yim, Abeysinghe, Shukri, Gov and Afra.
