Karen Redman elected regional chair

Karen Redman is the Region of Waterloo's next council chair.

Unofficial numbers from the cities and townships across the region, released Tuesday night after voting closed in Woolwich and Wellesley, showed Redman won the position with over 62 per cent of the vote. She had more votes than the three other candidates combined.

Injury lawyer Rob Deutschmann came in second, with about 19 per cent of the vote. Jan d'Ailly had 10 per cent of the votes while Jay Aissa received just over nine per cent.

The regional chair vote results were delayed until Tuesday night because of problems Monday with online voting in Cambridge, Woolwich and Wellesley.

Cambridge extended polling station hours to 10 p.m. on Monday, while Woolwich and Wellesley both opted to extend online and phone voting until 8 p.m. Tuesday.

In a release Tuesday night, current Regional Chair Ken Seiling congratulated Redman.

"I am pleased to see Karen Redman elected to chair and am confident she will provide solid leadership, engage the community and serve with a caring responsible government," said Seiling, who has served as regional chair since 1985 and decided not to seek re-election this year.