Full marks for coming clean

FULL marks to the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) for cleaning up the council election nomination process.
VEC returning officer David Triplow ran a tight ship at this year’s City of Casey returning office.
The proper democratic process and most certainly the intent of the democratic process were destroyed during the two previous Casey elections and the same applied to many other municipalities. This was mainly because less than ethical candidates were unashamedly running dummy candidates to steer preferences their way.
During the nomination process at the 2000 Casey election nominees were permitted after the closing time for nominations to withdraw and add names to the lists.
This was a fiasco and prosecutions should have been made.
During the 2003 election this was prevented because of press activity.
Mr Triplow told me at 3.45pm on the final day for nominations this year that if a candidate did not have his or her paper work completed when the ABC pips sounded 4pm, the nomination would not be accepted.
The State Government shake up of the electoral system and the introduction of proportional representation has made life more difficult for dummy candidature, but there are still a few.
The VEC also increased the nomination lodgement fee from $100 to $250 and although far from adequate this is a small deterrent to dummy candidates.