Martin Haese has won the Lord Mayoral election race on the strength of a preference deal that edged out incumbent Stephen Yarwood.

Martin Haese has been provisionally elected Lord Mayor of Adelaide after a very close vote count on Saturday night.

While incumbent Lord Mayor Stephen Yarwood won the popular vote – with 2723 people placing a “one” next to his name on the ballot paper, while only 2193 did the same next to Martin’s – a preference deal between Martin and another Lord Mayoral candidate, Kelly Henderson, saw Haese come out in front.

Martin is the former general manager of the Rundle Mall Retail Authority and founder of the Youthworks fashion chain and advisory business Retail IQ. Earlier this year, he told CityMag  that he wanted to be Lord Mayor because he thought Adelaide had potential that was not currently being fulfilled

“This decision [to run for Lord Mayor] came over a long period of time,” he said. ” It was because of two things in equal spades – opportunity and frustration, and they’re probably 50/50. I think we have a huge amount of opportunity as a city and that excites me. And there’s frustration about how we’re doing a few things, or we’re not doing a few things or how we’re not capitalising on a few things.”

Martin has congratulated Stephen Yarwood for his achievements over the last four years during interviews with the ABC.  He has also highlighted a greater need for unity in Council and in the community as one of his first priorities, and has said he will find ways to create a more efficient “customer-orientated” Council through a cultural shift.

Read CityMag’s full pre-election interview with Martin Haese here.

In a statement released yesterday, Stephen Yarwood thanked his family, supporters and the community and said that “the city is a better place and I have no regrets”.

The Adelaide City Council election results for ward and area councillors remain largely unconfirmed. The South Ward is the only vote that has been given a final result – with Priscilla Corbell and Alex Antic elected to represent that area. Check the Local Government Association website for updated results throughout the day.