2025 Darwin City Council election

2025 Darwin City Council election

←  2021 23 August 2025 2029 →
All 13 seats on Darwin City Council
Registered	51,716 [1] [2]
Lord Mayor
Votes counted	55.0% as of 17:33 ACST (25 August 2025)
First party Second party Third party   IND Candidate Peter Styles Kon Vatskalis Sylvia Klonaris Party Independent Independent Independent Primary  vote 6,112 5,494 2,935 Percentage 23.0% 20.7% 11.0%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   IND IND IND Candidate Julie Fraser Sam Weston Edwin Joseph Party Independent Independent Independent Primary  vote 2,920 2,587 1,917 Percentage 11.0% 9.7% 7.2%
Lord Mayor before election Kon Vatskalis Independent Elected Lord Mayor TBD
Councillors
Party Vote % Seats +/– Independents Greens Independent Labor Independent CLP This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

The 2025 Darwin City Council election was held on 23 August 2025 to elect a lord mayor and twelve councillors to the City of Darwin. ^{[3] [4]} The election was part of the local government elections held throughout the Northern Territory. ^{[5] [6]}

Incumbent mayor Kon Vatskalis sought re-election to a third term against twelve other candidates. ^{[7] [8]}

Retiring councillors

Greens

• Morgan Rickard (Chan Ward) ^{[9] [10]}

Independent Labor

• Vim Sharma (Richardson Ward) ^[11]
• Rebecca Want de Rowe (Richardson Ward) ^[12]

Candidates

Lord Mayor

Candidates are listed in the order they appeared on the ballot.

Party		Candidate	Background
	Independent	Kon Vatskalis	Lord Mayor of Darwin since 2017 [13]
	Independent	Peter Styles	Former Deputy Chief Minister [14] [15]
	Independent	Andrew John Arthur	Former Darwin councillor [16] [17]
	Independent	Vicki Bonson	Founder of Fannie Bay Free Feeds
	Independent	Leah Potter	Comedian and candidate lord mayor in 2021
	Independent	Sylvia Klonaris	Councillor for Waters Ward since 2021 [18] [19]
	Independent	Robin Lawrence	Candidate for Lord Mayor in 2021 [20]
	Independent	Sam Weston	Councillor for Lyons Ward since 2023 [21] [22] [23]
	Independent	Nicole Brown	2022 City of Darwin Citizen of the Year [24]
	Independent	Julie Fraser	Union organiser [25]
	Independent	Amye Un	Councillor for Lyons Ward since 2021 [26] [27]
	Independent	Scarlet D'Arc
	Independent	Edwin Joseph	Candidate for Richardson Ward in 2017 and 2021 [28]

Results

See also: Results of the 2025 Northern Territory local elections

Lord Mayor

2025 Northern Territory local elections: Darwin

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent	Kon Vatskalis
	Independent	Peter Styles
	Independent	Andrew John Arthur
	Independent	Vicki Bonson
	Independent	Leah Potter
	Independent	Sylvia Klonaris
	Independent	Robin Lawrence
	Independent	Sam Weston
	Independent	Nicole Brown
	Independent	Amye Un
	Independent	Scarlet D'Arc
	Independent	Edwin Joseph
	Independent	Julie Fraser
Total formal votes
Informal votes
Turnout

Chan

2025 Northern Territory local elections: Chan Ward ^[29]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent Labor	Ed Smelt
	Independent	Julie Fraser
	Greens	Ellyane Wall
	Independent	Clarence CJ McCarthy-Grogan
	Independent	Peter Pangquee
	Independent	Manik Gowda
	Independent	Lenny
	Independent	Gary Strachan
Total formal votes
Informal votes
Turnout

Lyons

2025 Northern Territory local elections: Lyons Ward ^[29]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent CLP	Mick Palmer
	Independent	Brett Hagan
	Independent	Vicki Bonson
	Independent	Andrew Lee
	Independent	Mark Barnes
	Independent	Sam Weston
	Independent	Scarlet D'Arc
	Independent	Amye Un
	Independent	Nicole Brown
	Independent	Nick O'Loughlin
Total formal votes
Informal votes
Turnout

Richardson

2025 Northern Territory local elections: Richardson Ward ^[29]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent	Edwin Joseph
	Independent Labor	Jimmy Bouhoris
	Independent	Peter Styles
	Independent	Andrew John Arthur
	Independent	Yulita Villanueva
	Independent	Shani Carson
Total formal votes
Informal votes
Turnout

Waters

2025 Northern Territory local elections: Waters Ward

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent	Mirella Fejo
	Independent	Robin Lawrence
	Independent	Sylvia Klonaris
	Independent	Tejinder Singh
	Independent	Manoli Papathomas
	Independent	Kim Farrar
	Independent	Otto Kainulainen
	Independent	Patrik Ralph
Total formal votes
Informal votes
Turnout

See also

• 2025 Northern Territory local elections

References

1. "Enrolment statistics". Northern Territory Electoral Commission. 19 August 2025. Archived from the original on 23 August 2025. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
2. "Results". Northern Territory Electoral Commission. 23 August 2025. Archived from the original on 23 August 2025. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
3. "City of Darwin 2025 election – candidate survey for Lee Point". Save Lee Point. Archived from the original on 21 August 2025. Retrieved 21 August 2025.
4. "COD Election Forum 2025". PLan – the Planning Action Network Inc. 9 August 2025. Archived from the original on 21 August 2025. Retrieved 21 August 2025.
5. "Here's the list of everyone running in the Local Government election on August 23". NT Independent. 7 August 2025. Archived from the original on 21 August 2025. Retrieved 21 August 2025.
6. Guenzler, Joseph (15 August 2025). "CJ McCarthy-Grogan to run for Darwin Council's Chan Ward". National Indigenous Times. Archived from the original on 21 August 2025. Retrieved 21 August 2025.
7. "Kon Vatskalis slams proposed NT council mayor election changes". The Greek Herald. 1 May 2025. Archived from the original on 1 May 2025. Retrieved 19 May 2025.
8. Woolf, Katie (18 August 2025). "Local Government Election Coverage with Katie Woolf". Mix 104.9. Archived from the original on 21 August 2025. Retrieved 21 August 2025.
9. "Councillor Morgan Rickard". City of Darwin. Archived from the original on 23 July 2025. Retrieved 21 August 2025.
10. "Morgan Rickard". NT Greens. Archived from the original on 22 June 2025. Retrieved 21 August 2025.
11. "Councillor Vim Sharma". City of Darwin. Archived from the original on 22 July 2025. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
12. "Councillor Rebecca Want de Rowe". City of Darwin. Archived from the original on 22 July 2025. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
13. "Incumbent Lord Mayor of Darwin Kon Vatskalis". 360 with Katie Woolf. 14 August 2025. Archived from the original on 23 August 2025. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
14. "Peter Styles 4 Mayor". peterstyles.au. Archived from the original on 21 August 2025. Retrieved 21 August 2025.
15. "Darwin Lord Mayor candidate Peter Styles". 360 with Katie Woolf. 14 August 2025. Archived from the original on 21 August 2025. Retrieved 21 August 2025.
16. McLean, Thomas (14 August 2025). "Former councillor Andrew Arthur puts hand up for Lord Mayor, councillor of Darwin". The Daily Telegraph. NT News. Archived from the original on 21 August 2025. Retrieved 21 August 2025.
17. "Darwin Lord Mayor candidate Andrew Arthur". 360 with Katie Woolf. 18 August 2025. Archived from the original on 23 August 2025. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
18. "Councillor Sylvia Klonaris". City of Darwin. Archived from the original on 22 July 2025. Retrieved 21 August 2025.
19. "Darwin Lord Mayor candidate Sylvia Klonaris". 360 with Katie Woolf. 15 August 2025. Archived from the original on 23 August 2025. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
20. Mathieson, Andrew (16 August 2021). "Rival mayoral candidates call for change, incumbent Kon Vatskalis confident of leadership". The Daily Telegraph. NT News. Archived from the original on 28 August 2025. Retrieved 28 August 2025.
21. "Councillor Sam Weston". City of Darwin. Archived from the original on 22 July 2025. Retrieved 21 August 2025.
22. Dick, Samantha (19 September 2023). "Darwin Lyons Ward by-election won by cafe owner Sam Weston, as 6,000 residents face fines for failing to vote". ABC News. Archived from the original on 11 January 2024. Retrieved 21 August 2025.
23. "Darwin Lord Mayor candidate Sam Weston". 360 with Katie Woolf. 14 August 2025. Archived from the original on 23 August 2025. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
24. "Reconciliation Advisory Committee gains new community representatives". City of Darwin. 13 July 2022. Archived from the original on 22 July 2025. Retrieved 21 August 2025.
25. "Darwin Lord Mayor candidate Julie Fraser". 360 with Katie Woolf. 14 August 2025. Archived from the original on 23 August 2025. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
26. "Councillor Amye Un". City of Darwin. Archived from the original on 22 July 2025. Retrieved 21 August 2025.
27. Garrick, Matt (23 August 2023). "City of Darwin councillor Amye Un banned from council buildings after 'threatening' Facebook posts". ABC News. Archived from the original on 27 November 2023. Retrieved 21 August 2025.
28. "Darwin Lord Mayor candidate Edwin Joseph". 360 with Katie Woolf. 18 August 2025. Archived from the original on 23 August 2025. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
29. "Register of annual return of interests" (PDF). City of Darwin. 10 February 2025. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 April 2025. Retrieved 23 August 2025.