There was a bit of everything in Monday's city election. Gord Van Tighem won a historic fourth straight term as mayor of Yellowknife, six incumbents remained on city council while two newcomers joined them, and it was a split between old and new on the school board elections.

Van Tighem easily beat his two challengers - Bryan Sutherland and John Westergreen - claiming 2,497 votes out of 3,385 cast for the city's top job.

Gord Van Tighem won a historic fourth straight term as mayor of Yellowknife in Monday's city election. Van Tighem easily beat his two challengers - Bryan Sutherland and John Westergreen. City councillor Paul Falvo will be returning for a second term, and quite possibly as deputy mayor. Falvo took first place among 16 council candidates with 1,830 votes cast in his favour. - NNSL photo/Mike Bryant

"I'm happy with the result, acclamations are a lot easier," said Van Tighem at city hall, where dozens of people came to watch the election results roll in.

On the city council front, where 16 people ran to fill eight seats this year, incumbents led the way. Six of those vying for a return to council were re-elected, including Paul Falvo who came in first after finishing in seventh place in 2006.

He credits hard work and his high profile involvement with litter cleanup in the city for his strong showing at the polls where he took 1,830 votes at press time.

"I think what you see tonight is people don't like litter," said Falvo.

Besides Falvo, incumbents Bob Brooks, Mark Heyck, David Wind, Lydia Bardak and Shelagh Montgomery were returned to council. Longtime councillor David McCann, first elected in 1999, missed the eighth and final council seat in a squeaker with Montgomery, who previously finished third in 2006.

Kevin Kennedy, who chose not to run for re-election, said he was surprised Montgomery didn't do better.

"Shelagh has taken a lead on a lot of issues that are important to me," said Kennedy.

While it remains unclear what the voter turnout was in this election - it was 29 per cent in 2006 - it appears to be no better this year after only 6,200 people registered to vote before election day.

Voter turnout was actually considerably higher in this election, with 49 per cent of registered voters showing up to cast ballots. This was up from 29 per cent in 2006.

Only 6,200 people registered to vote before election day but approximately 650 showed up at the polls and registered on the spot.

"That's a decent turn out," said city clerk Debbie Gillard.

Gillard said this was an improvement but said the 29 per cent voter turnout in the last election was skewed because the city was using the old voters' list, which may have had some names listed more than once.

There are lots of new names joining the Yk Education District No. 1 and Yellowknife Catholic Schools trustee boards.

Four incumbents remain with the seven-person Catholic board; chair Mary Vane, Rose-Marie Jackson, Marta Simek de Jorge and Jennifer Debogorski, who came in first. The new trustees are Barb McDonald, Simon Taylor, and Francis Chang, who also ran in the city council election but lost.

On the public school board, newcomers Mira Hall, Blake Lyons, and John Stephenson join incumbents Terry Brookes, Reanna Erasmus, Allan Short and Duff Spence.

"It went far better than I thought it would," said Hall, who ran in her first election campaign and came in sixth place out of 12 candidates. "I'm ecstatic and completely overwhelmed."

- with files from Elizabeth McMillan