Municipal election: Fredericton, Moncton and Saint John get new mayors

New Brunswick's three largest cities willall have new mayors after Monday's municipalelection that saw several changes across the province.

Saint John and Monctonwere both going to have a new mayor after their incumbents decided not to run again.

ButFrederictonvoters decided to move in a new direction and elected Mike O'Brien, a veteran councillor, over long-time mayor Brad Woodside.

In Saint John, meanwhile, Don Darling defeated Shelley Rinehart. The city businessman has 8,139votes compared to Rinehart's6,812.

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Moncton's mayoral campaign saw councillorsDawn Arnold and Brian Hicks battle for the city's top job. Arnold won by about 1,100 votes.

Miramichivoters rewardedincumbent mayor GerryCormierwith a landslide win.He earned 4,151 votes compared to PeggyMcLean's1,537and JohnForan's1,342.

Edmundstonvoters also re-electedCyrilleSimardover former mayor Jacques Martin.

There will be some new mayors in northern New Brunswick.

In Bathurst, Paolo Fongemiehas defeated Richard Barbeau.

Campbellton voters saw a close three-way race for the mayor's position.,

Stephanie Anglehart-Paulinemerged victorious with 1,118 votes over Ian Comeau's 1,090 and incumbent mayor Bruce MacIntosh's 1,017.

In Dalhousie, Normand Pelletierdefeatedincumbent mayor Clem Tremblay. Pelletier won 979 votes compared to Tremblay's 691.

Polls closed throughout the province at 8 p.m.As of2 p.m., Elections New Brunswick reported that 43,837 people had voted.

There are 1,173 candidates running in local races across the province.

This year's municipal elections have already drawna record number of voters to the advance polls.

Elections New Brunswick has more than 4,500 people working today at 353 polling stations.

The agency is using 581 tabulation machines to count the ballots.

The tabulation machines are intended to speed up the process of counting ballots.

The first resultsof the night, which will come from advance polls and special ballots, are expected within 30 minutes of the polls closing at 8 p.m.

The next step is counting the ballots cast today.

Once the final voter exits a polling station, which could be 15 to 20 minutes after the polls closed, elections staff will begin the process of closing the machine and tallying the final results. This could take about 30 minutes.

In 2012, enough ballots were counted in order to declare winners at about 10 p.m. and the final results were posted on the Elections New Brunswick website at 11:45 p.m.

There are 777 municipal positions in the election, 14 spots on the regional health authority boards and 36 positions on the district education councils.

There is also one plebiscite in the province.

Oromocto voters are being asked to weigh in on a proposal to expand curbside recycling, which would lead to a $40 per year increase in fees.