Labor councillor Elizabeth Adamczyk is favourite to retain top spot on the party's ticket in ward four for the September local government elections, but challenger Tahlia Kelso has not given up hope of claiming a winnable position on the ballot.
Cr Adamczyk led Saturday's Labor preselection contest 15-8 over Ms Kelso in ward four, but about 10 votes are open to unresolved voter-eligibility challenges.
Party sources said the disputed votes were unlikely to propel Ms Kelso into the lead, but the Beresfield branch secretary could beat incumbent councillor Deeahnna Richardson into number two on the ticket given some voters might not have followed the two sides' how-to-vote cards.
Labor's Internal Appeals Tribunal will meet on Wednesday, but many of the challenges may not be resolved until it convenes again in March.
Nuatali Nelmes won the lord mayoral preselection vote 134-104 against challenger Ross Kerridge and did not have to rely on a 20 per cent loading for female candidates under party affirmative action rules.
The results of about 25 outstanding voter eligibility challenges could change Cr Nelmes' margin of victory.
Councillor Carol Duncan lost her winnable spot on top of the Labor ticket in ward two to Paige Johnson.
The other incumbent councillors, deputy lord mayor Declan Clausen in ward one and Peta Winney-Baartz and Margaret Wood in ward three, will keep their winnable spots, though Cr Clausen's victory has not been officially declared yet due to outstanding challenges.
Ms Johnson, a civil engineer at Lake Macquarie City Council, had contested the past two local government elections as number two on Cr Duncan's ticket.
Cr Nelmes posted a photograph of herself on Facebook on Sunday with Ms Johnson and the incumbent councillors, minus Cr Duncan, in front of City Hall.
"At the close of counting yesterday, our incumbent team ... are ahead in the count," she wrote.
"On the current vote, we will also warmly welcome Paige Johnson as Labor's candidate in ward two."
Cr Nelmes thanked Cr Duncan for her "exceptional service to the residents of ward two" and cited her work on the Newcastle Art Gallery expansion and Gregson Park playground among her achievements.
The lord mayor said she had been "decisively re-selected" by Labor members, but Dr Kerridge said on Saturday that the challengers' results sent a "very strong signal to the party hierarchy of the need for a change in direction".
Ms Kelso said "a lot" of vote challenges remained "in play" and it was too early to know how decisive each candidate's margin of victory might be.
Labor's dominance at the ballot box in Newcastle means fewer than 300 Labor rank-and-file branch members have the power to all but elect the city's lord mayor.
The Herald has been told the median age of Labor members who voted on Saturday was 65 and their average age was 62.
Labor has held an absolute voting majority on the council since 2017, a powerful position it hopes to retain for another four years.
Ward four Liberal councillor Callum Pull jumped on Saturday's results as evidence "about half of Labor party members do not support this lord mayor".
"The people of this city will rightly question whether this was about them or whether this was about egos and personalities within the Labor party," he said.
