By Laura Michell and Prealene Khera
A northern suburbs MP has questioned whether Local Government Minister Melissa Horne will suspend a Whittlesea councillor while suspected vote tampering in the Lalor ward in investigated.
The Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) referred voting irregularities to police and the Local Government Inspectorate (LGI) for investigation after it detected a high number of multiple ballot papers appearing to be from the same voters.
The irregularities were also referred to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) for a review of the election result.
Electoral commissioner Sven Bluemmel said 128 ballots in Lalor ward were detected as suspicious.
Mr Bluemmel said he could not speculate what had happened, or who was behind the suspected vote tampering, but said it “indicates nefarious intent rather than being accidental”.
The VEC is unable to determine which candidate the suspicious votes were directed to as the ballot is secret.
Labor candidate and former Whittlesea councillor Stevan Kozmevski was elected in Lalor ward with 4953 first preference votes, ahead of independent Ellen McNaught (4002 votes) and community independent Nicholas Hajichristou (3346). After preferences, Cr Kozmevski had 6170 votes to Ms McNaught’s 6131.
Mr Bluemmel said Cr Kozmevski would continue to serve as a Whittlesea councillor.
Speaking in State Parliament on November 14, Northern Metropolitan Liberal MP Evan Mulholland asked Ms Horne if she would suspend Cr Kozmevski for the duration of the investigation.
“What action will the minister take to ensure the integrity of the election?” he said.
“This is the same part of the world where … the Labor controlled Whittlesea council was sacked.”
Ms Horne and Cr Kozmevski did not respond to questions from Star Weekly.
Whittlesea councillor Lawrie Cox, who served on the previous council with Cr Kozmevski, said calls for his suspension were unfounded.
“Clearly under the legislation he’s been elected. And I would say the same thing if Stevan wasn’t elected and the other candidate had been elected instead,” he said.
“What’s clearly got to be disclosed, is what was the tampering?
“I think it’s unfortunate that Stevan, having won the election, is being tainted with the brush of ‘he must be guilty’. That’s wrong.
“And the VEC should be explaining that a lot better — there are three candidates, they haven’t disclosed who may or may not be the beneficiary of those tampered votes.”
Speaking before he was elected Whittlesea mayor, Cr Aidan McLindon called for the investigation into the suspected tampering to be completed “sooner rather than later”.
A similar incident in Moreland (now Merri-bek) council at the 2020 election took more than two years to resolve.
“I think a six-month timeframe would be fair for everyone involved,” Cr McLindon said.
He said he hoped the issue was isolated, adding that he contacted the VEC about concerns for the potential for the “exploitation” of votes some months ago.
Chief municipal inspector Michael Stefanovic said the LGI is working closely with the VEC to establish the nature and extent of these matters and will liaise with Victoria Police as to the appropriate level of investigative response.
“On initial review, the matters that have been referred to the LGI, concern potential offences of tampering or interfering with ballot papers that are two of the more serious offences under the Local Government Act 2020 – each carrying a substantial fine or imprisonment for up to five years,” he said.
Ms McNaught described the discovery of potential vote tampering as “deeply concerning”.
“Voters deserve to have their voice heard fairly and accurately,” she said.
“The closeness of this result, with just 39 votes between us, shows that every vote truly matters in local democracy.”
Mr Hajichristou was contacted for comment.
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