Newark’s City Council Central Ward race was too close to call early Wednesday morning, with the two favorites – Mayor Ras J. Baraka-backed Amina Bey and former councilwoman Gayle Chaneyfield Jenkins – separated by 112 votes with 97 percent of the results counted.

Bey, a community advocate with a long history of nonprofit and government work, including the Newark Emergency Services for Families and Newark Workforce Development Board, had 3,097 votes, according to the unofficial election results provided by the Essex County Clerk’s Office website.

Chaneyfield Jenkins, a former Central Ward councilwoman who gave up her seat in 2018 to embark on an unsuccessful campaign for mayor against Baraka, had 2,985 votes.

The neck-and-neck competition was consistent throughout Election Night, with

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