New Brunswick voters elect new mayors, councils

New Brunswick voters revamped the electoral landscape on Monday night, sending many new mayors and councillors to city halls across the province.

Votes became to trickle in on Monday night despite the province turning to automatic vote tabulation machines.

The majority of polls had finally reported just before midnight.

When the results finally started to pour in, voters clearly sent strong messages to many local politicians.

Mel Norton will be the new mayor of New Brunswick's largest city.

Norton defeatedIvan Court, who served one term as Saint John's mayor.

Norton crushed Court in the final tally with 17,309 votes to 3,494. Matthew Thompson had 1,278 votes and Joseph Callahan had 827 votes.

While Saint John has a new mayor, voters inFredericton re-elected Brad WoodsideandMoncton voters re-elected George LeBlanc.

In Dieppe,voters are putting Yvon Lapierreback in the mayor's chair. Lapierre resigned from the city's top job in 2005.

Lapierre had 4,005 votes over Helene Boudreau's 3,438.

There are 1,268 candidates running for positions on local councils, regional health authorities and district education councils.

[IMAGEGALLERY galleryid=2358 size=small]

Elections New Brunswick reported strong voter turnout in the major centres on Monday.

As of 2 p.m., the unofficial voter turnout was 44,762. There were 38,558 people casting ballots in the advance polls on May 5 and 7.

Elections New Brunswick's website says there were 219,595 ballots cast on Monday. The unofficial results show a 39.9 per cent voter turnout.