HILO >> For the first time in weeks, excitement on Hawaii island did not have to do with lava, as the talk of the town revolved around election results.

Voters Tuesday decided two spots on the Hawaii County Council.

In District 5, encompassing Kurtistown, Mountain View and Kehena, Daniel K. Paleka Jr., former correctional officer, bed-and-breakfast owner and ex-union business agent, beat local business owner and newspaper publisher Tiffany Edwards Hunt.

Paleka won by 279 votes. He had 2,294 votes versus 2,015 votes for Hunt, according to the fourth printout from the elections office.

In District 9, Hawaii County Council member Margaret Wille won over challenger Ron Gonzales, a restaurant manager, former chairman of the Windward Planning Commission and decorated veteran.

The district comprises North and South Kohala.

Wille collected 3,154 votes compared with Gonzales’ 2,149.

Seven of the nine Council seats were decided in the Aug. 9 primary.

In the race between Paleka and Hunt, both candidates were vague on whether the county should place more restrictions on growing genetically modified crops.

Paleka said he believed the most pressing quality-of-life issue was inadequate infrastructure such as potable water, wastewater treatment and substandard roads.

He also said he believed in improving roads as well as expanding mass transit while using bond issuance for capital improvement projects and federal and state funding.

For Hunt, alternate routes into and out of Puna, and meaningful jobs with affordable wages, were issues she hoped to tackle. She also said she would lobby the Public Utilities Commission for lower electrical bills.

Gonzales said that as long as GMO products are freely imported, then local farmers should be able to farm as they please without being "overregulated" or "overburdened."

Wille said it should be a matter of home rule and that Hawaii should be allowed to restrict GMO crops to prevent contamination of non-GMO crops and plants.

A county charter amendment to lengthen the term of the county clerk to four years from two years was adopted with nearly 

70 percent of the vote. There were 34,561 votes in favor of the charter and 11,034 opposed.