Petition backing Electoral Commission slap in the face for Liverpool

A petition sparked by Liverpool Council’s decision to dump the NSW Electoral Commission at next year’s council elections has received massive public support.

Within 48 hours of local community campaigner Michael Andjelkovic launching the ePetition calling for council elections to be run by the NSW Electoral Commission, it gathered the required 500 signatures for a response from the minister for local government.

A few days later it was signed by 742 people, but with six days to go the number is expected to go much higher.

“The petition closes on August 9 and the Minister has 35 days after that to respond,’’ Mr Andjelkovic told the Voice today.

“This petition of the residents of New South Wales brings to the attention of the House the decision of the previous NSW State government to allow local councils to engage the services of private providers instead of the NSW Electoral Commission to conduct elections,’’ says the petition.

“Currently three Councils have opted to engage private companies to run their Local Government elections, Fairfield, Liverpool and Penrith Councils.

“Liverpool Council was the most recent Council that voted to dump the NSW Electoral Commission from running the Local Government election at its 1st March 2023 Council Meeting held in a Confidential Session.

“The undersigned petitioners ask the Legislative Assembly to call on the Government to mandate the use of the NSW Electoral Commission to oversee all Local Government elections from September 2024 in order to maintain and ensure voter confidence and provide full transparency in the election process.’’

Member for Leppington Nathan Hagarty has endorsed the petition.

“Fundamentally, this is our democracy we’re talking about, there was no consultation with the voters [of Liverpool] about how their elections will be administered,’’ he told the Voice.

“We have to have certainty and trust that our elections will be administered without fear or favour, consistently and transparently.

“I think that can only be done by the Electoral Commission,’’ he said.