The first council was locked in on Wednesday when Paul Miegel, Fred Longmire, Bronwyn Thomas, Gail Law, Norm Wales and Andrew Kennedy were confirmed as the final six councillors to be elected with the distribution of all important preferences. They joined Shaun Whitechurch, Pat Bourke and David Longley who were assured of a spot on Saturday night.

Former Urana mayor Bourke is set to be joined in the mayoral race by the last two mayors of Corowa Shire, Mr Miegel and Mr Longmire.

Mr Longmire, who served five terms as mayor and was a strong advocate for the merger with Urana, said he would stand for mayor on the proviso he knew he had support.

“You’ve got to have the numbers,” he said.

“Obviously I won’t have all the numbers, but there might be something I can offer from my past experience.

“Whether that counts for anything will be up for others to decide.”

Mr Miegel said he would also be testing the waters for support.

“It will be an interesting exercise one way or the other,” he said.

Preferences pushed Mr Miegel and Mr Longmire above the quota, but Ms Thomas, Ms Law, Mr Wales and Mr Kennedy were all elected without achieving the final quota figure of 720.

Mr Miegel, Mr Longmire, Ms Law and Mr Wales are all former Corowa councillors.

Mr Miegel said he was confident Urana’s interests would be looked after.

“I would like to think it is not about parochialism, but the big picture,” he said.