Seven councillors who joined forces to present a united front to the community were swept into power.

Retiring councillor and deputy shire president Beth Hastie was a major casualty of the election.

She was the only one of four councillors seeking re-election to lose her position on the council, finishing a distant 10th.

Anne Ryan, who has been caught up in controversy during her four-year stint on council, easily topped the poll.

She had adverse opinions made against her by the Corruption and Crime Commission and as recently as a week before the election was forced to apology to shire CEO Andrew Macnish and Smiths Beach activist Bill Mitchell over comments she made at council in relation to a meeting the two men had on the eve of the deadline for public submissions on the Smiths Beach draft Development Guide Plan.

Cr Ryan polled 5337 votes, 679 ahead of Grant Henley, while the two other councillors seeking re-election, David Reid and Jackie Emery finished next on 4571 and 4547 votes respectively.

Others elected to council were Len Boyling, Gordon Bleechmore and Terry Best.

The counting was not without drama.

A few minutes before it was to start at 6pm the council chamber was plunged into darkness when a wattlebird sparked a power blackout outside the council building.

Though power was restored to the building about 45 minutes later by Western Power, the chamber remained in darkness for three hours after the incident.

While there was power to computer terminals, the lights remained out, despite being on in other parts of the shire building, and did not come on because the upstairs switch had jammed when power was restored.

Counting had been anticipated to finish before 9pm but did not conclude, and a result declared, until just after 11.30pm.