Pro-tunnel Doyle new Lord Mayor

ROBERT Doyle is Melbourne's new lord mayor after voters flocked to the former Liberal Party state leader in the hotly contested election.

Mr Doyle easily outpolled his nearest rivals but had to rely on preferences to be calculated late last night to be crowned mayor.

Mr Doyle said he was delighted with the support voters had shown him.

His strong vote was reminiscent of the performance of outgoing Lord Mayor John So at the 2004 election and will give him a mandate to pursue his contentious policy of returning cars to Swanston Street.

Other Doyle priorities include more police patrols in the CBD, a review of the Melbourne City Council voting system and a forensic examination of the council's finances.

Mr Doyle said he would like to meet the Premier, Police Minister and Roads Minister as soon as possible to begin work on his new agenda.

Mr Doyle, a Liberal Party member, has said he believed he could work well with the Brumby Labor government.

Mr Doyle led the mayoral vote count from the start, but a field of 11 candidates and complicated preference deals meant the result was not confirmed until 10.45pm.

Others who had a chance of winning until late included the bookies' favourite, Labor-aligned Peter McMullin, the Greens' Adam Bandt, former councillor Catherine Ng and former deputy lord mayor Gary Singer.

Mr Singer said Mr McMullin's "negative" election campaign, which included leaflets attacking other candidates, had put off voters.

"I think people didn't like the McMullin negative campaign; I felt that way myself," he said. "A disappointing way of conducting themselves."

A senior Labor Party source said Mr McMullin's vote had been below expectation.

Mr Singer said Mr Doyle would struggle to return cars to Swanston Street because the other candidates and councillors opposed the policy.

Unlike Mr So, Mr Doyle will not have a majority of councillors behind him and will need to negotiate policies through the council.

Ms Ng, who polled below expectation following personal attacks against her during the campaign, had no regrets.

"I have run a clean and good campaign and I am very proud of that," she said.

The Greens' Mr Bandt said he was "thrilled with our vote" — the second highest number of primary votes.

But he said Labor's decision to preference Mr Doyle ahead of the Greens might have helped Mr Doyle win.

The results for the Melbourne city councillors indicate more than two-thirds of the previous council will not be returned.

Councillors Brian Shanahan, Carl Jetter and Peter Clarke will return. New councillors include John So's former chief of staff, Kevin Louey, the Greens' Cathy Oke, Ken Ong and Jennifer Kanis.

Overall, voting for the Melbourne City Council was down, with only 62% of the nearly 100,000 eligible voters casting a ballot...

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