Fifty-seven people have put their hands up to represent the ratepayers of Whittlesea in the municipality’s first council election since October 2016.
The municipality has been split into 11 wards, each with one vacancy, for this year’s local government elections.
At the last election in 2016, the municipality was split into three wards – two represented by four councillors each and one ward with three councillors.
There was no council election in Whittlesea in 2020 because the state government appointed administrators to run the council until this year’s election after it sacked the previous 11 councillors in March 2020.
Former councillors Lawrie Cox, Stevan Kozmevksi, Christine Stow and John Fry have nominated for re-election in the Ganbu Gulinj, Lalor, North and Mill Park wards respectively.
Former Freedom Party leader Aidan McLindon has nominated for Kirrip Ward and is leading a team of ” community independents”: Andrew Filippopoulos (South Morang Ward), Richard Stockman (Bundoora Ward), Nicholas Hajichristou (Lalor Ward), Ursula van Bree (Gabu Gulinj Ward), Rohit Taggar (Mernda Ward), Ross Lee (Painted Hills Ward), Shashl Pal (North ward), Edward Sukkar (Epping Ward), Nicholas Brooks (Thomastown Ward) and Dr Maurice Abi Raad (Mill Park Ward).
The Thomastown and Bundoora wards are the most keenly-contested, with eight candidates each, followed by Ganbu Gulinj and North wards with seven candidates each, Mill Park Ward (six candidates), Epping Ward (five candidates), Kirrip and South Morang wards (four candidates each) and Mernda and Lalor wards (three candidates each).
Only two candidates – Deb Gunn and Mr Lee – have nominated for Painted Hills Ward.
Voting opens on Monday, October 7 and closes on Friday, October 25.
Voting in this election is by post only.
The candidates are:
Bundoora Ward
Daniela Zinni
Danny Hanna
Harsh Singh
Jamie Nikolovski
Nimesh Shah
Marcelle Henderson
Richard Stockman
Anthony Mancuso
Epping Ward
David Lenberg
Donny Batten
Edward Sukkar
Nessie Sayar
Rachael Hussein
Ganbu Gulinj Ward
Lawrie Cox
Patricia Isaac
Bineet Gujral
Santosh Kaur
Ahmed Farole Mohamud
Ursula Van Bree
Rachael Hussein
Kirrip Ward
Jay Upadhyay
Aidan Mclindon
Gurinder Kaur
Imran Khan
Lalor Ward
Stevan Kozmevski
Ellen Mcnaught
Nicholas Hajichristou
Mernda Ward
Rohit Taggar
Jarrod Lappin,
William Sharp
Mill Park Ward
Eva Moran
Blair Colwell
Maurice Abi Raad
Samantha Mason
John Fry
Robert Malivindi
North Ward
Helen Franks
Shashi Pa
James Francis
Munish Kumar Bansal
Mary Krassos
Phil Hurrey
Christine Stow
Painted Hills Ward
Deb Gunn
Ross Lee
South Morang Ward
Martin Taylor
Vesna Pepe,
Andrew Filippopoulos
Monique Lobosco
Thomastown Ward
Nicholas James Brooks
Quentin Bai
Sarah Garnham
Lea Thornton
Trung Thanh Thai
George Stavrakis
Chaman Tiwari
Halimah H. F. Mcglashan
