Ald. Linda Fox-Mellway has lost her Ward 14 council seat to Peter Demong, a business owner who ran on a platform of fiscal conservatism and cutting red tape at city hall.

Demong, who operates a flower shop in the deep southeast district, is also a board member of the Progressive Group for Independent Business.

He took 8,483 votes, while Fox-Mellway got just 5,187 — a fourth place finish for the veteran alderman.

Ward 7 Ald. Druh Farrell held on to her seat after a tight contest with challenger Kevin Taylor for the inner city district.

When all the polling stations were finally counted early Tuesday morning, Farrell had won with 11,909 votes compared with Taylor's 10,657.

The race in Ward 11 was also too close to call until early Tuesday when Ald. Brian Pincott had successfully held off a strong challenge from James Maxim, a land man and business consultant.

Pincott beat Maxim by only two percentage points, taking 9,834 votes to Maxim's 9,385, or 33 per cent versus 31 per cent.

Barbara Clifford, the City of Calgary's returning officer, said her staff has been reviewing the vote counts. She expected to be able to say later Tuesday whether recounts would be ordered.

"Once they've done all the verification, we look at the difference in the results from the top two candidates and then we look at the number of rejected ballots," she said.

"If there is sufficient rejected ballots on which there was a vote cast make a difference, then there's a recount."

Vacancies filled

In the four aldermanic races where there was no incumbent, voters have sent three men and a woman to city hall.

Gael MacLeod, a banking and finance professional and executive director of the Alberta Real Estate Foundation, took Ward 4 after a tight race in the city's northwest.

MacLeod beat rival Sean Chu by a margin of 25 per cent to 21 per cent once all 37 polling stations had reported just before dawn on Tuesday.

The area was left without an incumbent when Ald. Bob Hawkesworth said in May he was running for mayor.

Businessman Richard Pootmans is the new alderman for Ward 6, taking 31 per cent of the vote, more than doubling his nearest competitor.

"We'd really like to see a far more collegial council," he said.

The ward is in the city's southwest, extending from Sarcee Trail and 37th Street S.W. south and west to the city limit. It was represented by Ald. Joe Connelly, who threw his hat into the mayoral ring in April.

Gian-Carlo Carra, an urban planner and civic activist won the close contest for Ward 9 on the city's east side. He beat Canadian Forces veteran Mike Pal 31 per cent to 29 per cent.

"Step number one is sitting down with the other 14 representatives of the city of Calgary and really talk about the fact that we have to build unprecedented collaboration on this council," he said.

Joe Ceci, who represented the area for five terms, did not put his name up for re-election.

In the city's far southeast, Ward 12 voters picked former school principal Shane Keating to replace Ald. Ric McIver, who gave up the seat to run for mayor.

Keating took 43 per cent of the votes, while his nearest rival Al Browne got 32 per cent.

Mar holds off challenge

In the southwest inner city Ward 8, incumbent Ald. John Mar held off a formidable challenge for his seat from Zak Pashak, a bar owner and organizer of the Sled Island Music and Arts Festival.

Mar finished with 53 per cent of the votes compared to Pashak's 41 per cent.