Letters to the Editor

Updated September 5 2016 - 10:03pm, first published 8:35am

VEC changes a step toward transparency in council elections

With the greatest respect to John Barnes, a true elder statesmen of the local political scene, in his article on Saturday, surely we must unreservedly support the demise of the shady system of preferencing candidates that saw political parties and monied sectional interests stand dummy candidates in local government elections to direct preferences to a "real" candidate. The subterfuge worked especially well in local government elections where the majority of folk are not as engaged as a state or federal election, and candidates unable to realistically get a distinct profile out to ratepayers in wards that have thousands of households. The voting form itself is often the only information on a candidate a voter may have, and other than by forensic examination of the ballot and preferences suggested, the dummy candidates seemed independent and above board.

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