Cessnock
Cessnock independent Daniel Watton was holding off declaring victory on Monday despite securing 47.94 per cent of the vote, overtaking Labor incumbent Jay Suuval on 43.55 per cent.
Cr Suuval conceded that he would not be mayor on Sunday.
Cr Watton said he was eagerly anticipating the pre-poll results.
"While I'm still optimistic of a positive outcome, I won't be declaring a victory officially until these numbers come in," he said.
"I'm also still hopeful that another Independent councillor will scrape in after all checks and balances have taken place."
Independent was in the lead in Ward A with 57.65 per cent of votes, while Labor was ahead in Ward B with 40.65 of votes, Ward C with 49.17 per cent and Ward D with 44.96 of votes as of Monday, September 16.
A total of 29,822 votes had been counted out of 49,457 electors on Monday.
Dungog
Digby Rayward retained a narrow margin in a tight three-way contest for the title of Dungog mayor on Monday afternoon.
Cr Rayward had 30.04 per cent of the vote, Michael Dowling 26.28 per cent and incumbent mayor John Connors 25.17 per cent.
About 2000 votes remain to be counted.
"It's a very tight contest and I look forward to the final count," Cr Rayward said.
Cr Connors, who was uncontested in 2021, was philosophical about the situation.
"I'm surprised and disappointed but that's democracy," he said on Sunday.
"People vote, and, well, you live with the result," he said.
The council is also expected to have several new faces.
A Ward Independent Liam Ley was looking likely to secure a council seat with 29.42 per cent of the ward vote. He trailed incumbent councillor Michael Dowling who had 36.85 per cent of the vote.
"The speed in the counting process is always frustrating. Also the fact an entire booth at Vacy has seemingly not been counted as yet, adds to that frustration," Cr Dowling said.
"Pre-poll was significant in Dungog, and those numbers have not as yet been added to the tally, but (I am) quietly confident of retaining at least my councillor role."
Independent Stephen Low was ahead in B Ward with 24.21 per cent of the vote.
First time C Ward candidate Labor's Alexandria Carrurthers was was leading the ward count with 35.58 per cent of the vote.
Maitland
Incumbent Maitland mayor Philip Penfold extended his lead on Monday, after declaring victory on the weekend.
Cr Penfold had secured 55.85 per cent of the mayoral vote, Labor's Ben Whiting had 30.86 per cent, the Greens' Campbell Knox had 9.66 per cent and independent Shahriar Saffari had 3.63 per cent.
"We did it! Thanks Maitland. Proud to have been returned as your mayor," he said in a Facebook post.
Labor remained ahead in Ward 1 and Ward 2 with 37.14 per cent and 36.55 per cent of the vote respectively.
The independents were leading in Ward 3 and Ward 4 with 36.55 and 51.83 per cent of the vote respectively
Singleton
Singleton incumbent mayor Sue Moore was still ahead in a three-way contest on Monday
Cr Moore was optimistic with 47.20 per cent of votes, followed by independent Danny Thompson at 33.25 per cent. Peree Watson for Labor trails in third with 19.55 per cent.
"I'm still quietly confident that we'll get a good result once the pre-poll is determined," Ms Moore said.
She said the previous council term had been one of the best she's been part of working collaboratively with her team.
"We all worked together and worked for the Singleton community to the point where we actually won the AR Bluett awards," she said.
"I'm not saying the next term is not going to be good too, but most important thing is to get there and get started, get to know people and get to understand what their interests are and what they want to see in this term of council."
There are nine councillors to be elected from 12 candidates in Singleton.
As of Monday, September 16 Independent was in the lead at 83.40 per cent with Labor sitting at 16.60 per cent.
Muswellbrook
Muswellbrook councillors will choose the town's next mayor.
Labor candidate Jeff Drayton remained ahead in Muswellbrook count on Monday.
"I have run a fairly hard campaign, and campaigns are no different to anything else, if you work hard, you get the result at the end, so fingers crossed that happens," Mr Drayton said.
His group had attracted 369 first preference votes followed by De-Anne Douglas' group on 249 votes and Max Morris' group on 184 votes.
Upper Hunter
Incumbent Upper Hunter mayor Maurice Collinson was hopeful of retaining his position as mayor with 16 per cent of the votes.
"I'm very happy. Pre-polls are in and there's a little bit more to do of course, but I'm happy with my own polling at this stage," he said.
"I've been on council for 12 years and I can't give any more. You can always do better, but that's through working as a team, with a team and having solid debate."
"Thanks to all my supporters, let's hope we can form council very shortly."
As of Monday, 7200 votes had been counted out of the LGAs 10,555 electors. Independent George Fraser was trailing behind with 13.36 per cent of the votes.
