Fairfield council is probably the most interesting council to face the voters this month. The council is currently controlled by a narrow Labor majority, but both major parties have split, with significant independent forces running in the election.
Labor’s Frank Carbone became mayor in 2012, replacing Nick Lalich, who had gone on to hold the state seat of Cabramatta. Carbone was defeated for mayoral preselection this year by Del Bennett. As a response, Carbone is running for council and for mayor as an independent.
On the Liberal side, the party did not endorse candidates in 2012, and four Liberals were elected as independents. Only one of those four councillors is running on the Liberal ticket this year. Sitting independents Dai Le and Charbel Saliba are each running independent tickets for council, and Le is also running for mayor.
This makes the Fairfield council election a difficult one to predict, with four prominent councillors running for mayor. Whatever happens, it seems unlikely that the official Labor ticket will be able to hold on to a majority of seats on the council.
