Preferences are expected to heavily favour Cr Baker with the Liberals, Greens and the second ranked Independent Michael Cooper all directing preferences to Cr Baker.

Cr Baker said while it was too early to call a result, the results to date were positive.

In a Facebook post, Cr Baker said the result was still too close to call and that counting would continue into the next week or two.

"A significant number of people voted early at this election, and half of those votes are still to be counted," Cr Baker said.

At the close of counting on Saturday, Cr Baker had 9773 votes or 33.16 per cent of the vote, ahead of Cr Penfold on 9407 (31.92 per cent).

Liberal candidate Ben Mitchell was in third place with 4484 (15.21 per cent), Greens' John Brown was fourth with 2012 (6.83) and Independent Michael Cooper fifth with 1924 (6.53 per cent).

"Out of 23 election day polling booths, I received the largest number of votes in 17, which is promising," Cr Baker said.

"Currently, I am ahead. However, with seven candidates for mayor, the preferences of each and every voter may change the result.

"So, there is still a lot of counting left to do, but the results are positive."

Critically for Cr Baker, the Liberals, Greens and Mr Cooper have all directed preferences to her ahead of Cr Penfold.

In a post on his Facebook page, Cr Penfold said the result was not decided yet.

"20,000 votes to come and Cr Baker is currently 366 in front," he posted. "May take 1-2 weeks and will likely come down to preferences."

In an earlier post Cr Penfold said preference deals may hurt his chances.

At the 2017 election after preferences Cr Baker 19,771 (54.8%) defeated Cr Penfold 16,277 (45.2%) with 10,688 preferences exhausted.

(Close of voting on Saturday, December 4)

Total Formal Votes Counted 29,471

Total Informal/Other Votes1,326

Progressive Total Votes 30,797