The fight for the top job in the local government elections is going to be a cliff hanger going by the running results of The Newsport Poll.

Mayoral hopefuls Val Schier and Bob Manning are clearly the two front-runners according to our voters. Manning has pegged back the early lead held by Schier with the community now split (surprise surprise) on their preferred leader.

Despite her vocal critics, Schier seems to have retained a strong supporter base which she hopes will get her over the line on 28 April.

Meanwhile, Manning has struck a chord with many disillusioned Douglas-based voters even though he would prefer to retain an amalgamated regional council.

Ian Thomas and Margaret Cochrane both have an uphill battle to win the support of our readers and will need to make some major announcements in the final week of campaigning to turn that around. 

Who will you vote for? Take part in our poll (left)

In Division 10, current councillor and independent candidate Julia Leu holds a comfortable lead over the Unity Team's Pete Smith.

Mr Smith said that while there was a long way to go before the election, he has been happy with the feedback from the public to date.

"The overwhelming questions are it appears that the current beaurocrats are certainly running the Cairns Regional Council, there needs to be total transparency within the current council and (there is) too much infighting within council."

He said other issues often raised are amalgamation versus deamalgamation, the coconut palm revegetation project, and the Port Douglas Waterfront Project.

When asked if he would comment on Mr Manning's polling performance, Mr Smith said "As for Bob Manning faring "quite well," what the CRC needs is a professional business person with a full management team to run the biggest employee base in the region. It is no surprise that he is faring "quite well."

Former CEO of the Douglas Shire Council, Terry Melchert and Palm Cove based Bob Shaw appear to have made little impact on poll respondents but will have the opportunity to make ground, along with all local government candidates, at the Chamber of Commerce event next week.

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