Mr Epov's group comfortably won the vote in the December 4 local government election. At the time of writing the group has more than 18 per cent of the vote, assuring that Mr Epov would retain his place. Tuncurry businessman Peter Howard, who was number two on the ticket, also looks set to be a councillor for the first time.

Mr Epov was elected to Greater Taree City Council in 2012 and to the MidCoast Council in 2017 following the amalgamation.

He now looks certain to be a candidate for mayor when the new council meets for the first time of Wednesday, January 12. Here the mayor and deputy will be elected by councillors.

Mr Epov makes no secret of the fact that he believes the people should decide who is mayor and not the 11 councillors. This is different from the former Greater Taree City Council, where the mayor was decided by popular vote.

"I think the people should have a choice on whether they want to have a mayor elected by the public or by the councillors,'' Mr Epov emphasised.

"Initially when the three councils (Greater Taree, Great Lakes and Gloucester) were merged I think the actual proclamation basically said for the first election the mayor should be elected by the councillors. I think the proclamation actually anticipated that after the first election the vote would go back to the people.''

He said in the life of the previous council he moved that the people decide the mayor, but this failed to get sufficient backing.

Mr Epov was guarded in his response when asked if the landslide vote he received in the election should be an indication to his fellow councillors that he has the support from the public for the top job.

"One would hope they read the signs,'' he said.

"But sometimes these things become very complicated. A lot of people probably want to be mayor, so it's really up to the will of the council. What I can say is I think people want some confident, capable leadership and I think the role of the mayor is really critical to the future of this region."

Mr Epov, 67, from Mooral Creek, just outside of Wingham, said much preparation went into the campaign.

"We worked hard. We planned hard and well, and I did have a great deal of support,'' he continued.

"The important thing is that the public expressed the view that they wanted reform and change. I think for too long the community has been neglected.

"People are looking forward to a council that is going to be in charge and control,

"We campaigned on that hard. We want the elected council to take control and target certain areas.

"So I guess we did a lot of the right things in terms of campaigning. We won an extraordinary number of booths.

"If you have a look, we won or come second right across the area. We're leading the postal vote which I'm amazed about and we're coming second in the iVote. So generally speaking I think it is a public statement of a mandate.''

Mr Epov said he didn't campaign in Gloucester for a reason.

"I didn't go to Gloucester quite deliberately, because I thought it should have a councillor elected from there and it appears that will be the case, with Kathryn Smith retaining her place,'' he explained.

Mr Epov added that he feels 'humbled' by the support.

"I'm deeply honoured,'' he said.

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