Paul Russell has officially been declared the winner of Saturday’s municipal byelection, the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) announced on Wednesday morning.
Russell, a former member of the Halifax Regional School Board and president of the Sackville-Cobequid Progressive Conservative Association, was one of 10 candidates who ran to replace Steve Craig as councillor for Lower Sackville’s District 15.
Craig left the seat vacant after winning a seat in Nova Scotia’s legislature during a provincial byelection held in June.
READ MORE: Paul Russell unofficially wins Lower Sackville council seat in special election
Russell won Saturday’s election with 30.5 per cent of the votes and will now represent Lower Sackville at Halifax City Hall until the next general election, which is scheduled for Oct. 17, 2020.
This is the first time the municipality has held an exclusively paperless election.
The HRM says 3,122 of the 16,045 eligible voters cast their ballot over the internet while 491 people registered their vote by phone.
That works out to a voter turnout of 22.52 per cent.
It’s a minor increase from the last byelection, held in District 6 in January 2016, which saw 18 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot.
Halifax regional council will review the success of this election before deciding how to conduct next year’s general election.
The official results of the byelection can be found on the municipality’s website.