Australia's longest-serving lord mayor, Clover Moore, has all but declared victory for a record sixth term managing Sydney, and she says it could be her last.
Ms Moore thanked her team, fellow-candidates and volunteers for their work in what had been a tough campaign.
"Some pretty awful things were said by some people and on certain corflutes," she told reporters in Surry Hills on Sunday.
"But I'm so encouraged and happy about the city community endorsing me to do another four years as Lord Mayor."
Ms Moore, who has never lost an election, was asked if she would stand for another term.
"I don't think there will be," she said, adding she was focused on the next four years.
"I've just won this one, so let me enjoy it."
Votes are not being tallied for the 2024 NSW local elections on Sunday, with counting to resume on Monday.
At the close of counting on election night, Ms Moore had an early lead, securing almost 37 per cent of the vote, followed by Labor on 17 per cent and the Greens on 13 per cent.
Despite what appeared to be a small swing against her, election and political analyst Ben Raue said the gap between Ms Moore and the second-place candidate was likely too big to cross.
"Unless those numbers change a lot - right now at a quarter of the way through and probably not everyone votes - I think she'll get re-elected," Mr Raue, the founder of the Tally Room election website, told AAP.
The 78-year-old is among the 37 mayors up for election with the Ryde City Council voters, in Sydney's northwest, likely electing a Liberal as their first directly elected mayor.
In a dramatic election campaign, the Liberals failed to nominate more than 100 candidates for several councils, accusations arose of election material tampering, and voters got to have their say in a highly publicised spat between a mayor and the state government.
Several councils face an unavoidable shift to the left after the Liberals' headline-grabbing blunder in which 140-odd endorsed candidates were not nominated.
The absence of the Liberals will likely result in Penrith, Camden, Northern Beaches, Lane Cove, Wollongong and Blue Mountains councils shifting left, although the Liberals could win seats in Parramatta.
Labor has a clear majority in Penrith with the Libertarian Party picking up enough votes to secure up to two seats in the absence of the Liberals.
"If those numbers stay steady, Labor's going to get a clear majority, but there's going be just as many Libertarians on the council as Liberals," Mr Raue said.
Early counting in Parramatta indicated the Liberals could pick up at least five seats and Our Local Community had been wiped out, Mr Raue said.
In Sydney's fast-growing southwest, voters in the Liverpool council appear to have backed incumbent Liberal mayor Ned Mannoun following a well-publicised fight with the Labor state government.
Labor had attempted to address alleged serious maladministration and dysfunction in the council and defer elections, only to run out of time due to the mayor's legal challenges.
Ms Moore apologised on Saturday after independent candidate Yvonne Weldon alleged one of the mayor's volunteers had taken her corflutes away and replaced them with Ms Moore's signage.
Almost a third of eligible voters had cast their votes ahead of time as more than five million people made their choice across 128 councils.
