The Electoral Commission Queensland called out the poor conduct on display during the early voting days of the recent Redland City Council election by candidates and their campaign staff and volunteers at the booths.
In a letter to all of the candidates running for Redland City Council, the ECQ reported that many complaints had been filed by voters in the area about matters that included intimidating behaviour, movement obstruction, aggression and arguing between conflicting groups.
Wade Lewis, Assistant Electoral Commissioner issued the letter to the candidates said that despite contests being underway across Queensland’s 77 local governments, there is no other area that shoes the same level of poor conduct.
“There is no other council which the ECQ is currently aware of where this same level of acrimony, complaint burden and related behaviour is present,” he said.
“The ECQ therefore urges all candidates and political participants in the Redland City Council elections to reflect on the above matters and take proactive steps to establish a respectful campaign environment.”
Tens of thousands of Redlanders visited the election booths, either in the ten days of early voting or on Election Day, Saturday March 16.
One voter, aged 20, said he was hassled by campaign volunteers when he approached the early voting area at Capalaba.
“There were a lot of signs and banners up for the different candidates, both mayor and councillor, but when I got close, they were quick to tell me to vote for their person very aggressively,” he said.
“One volunteer grabbed my hand to put a pamphlet in it.
“This wasn’t my first time voting in an election, but I have never experienced anything like that before.”
Another voter, aged 21, said they witnessed campaign staff bombarding people as they exited the cars before heading over to the voting location.
“It was very loud… trying to get into the early voting centres,” they said.
“If the volunteers and staff weren’t calling out to other people asking if they had voted or telling them to vote for their candidate, they were talking, or really arguing, loudly with each other.
“I thought I was getting ahead of the craziness that would be on Saturday and would be able to cast my vote and be done, but I felt like I was being swarmed.”
All three mayoral candidates were contacted for comment about the ECQ letter and their experiences with opposition volunteers.
Mayor Jos Mitchell said it was extremely disappointing to see the Redlands, yet again, in the news for the wrong reasons.
“The conduct I have witnessed and experienced over the last 14 months is appalling and affects the democratic process,” she said.
“I have happy to report our candidates and volunteers have conducted themselves extremely well under immense pressure.
“We continue, as we started, wanting to create change in the Redlands and we are working hard to do just that.”
Candidate Cindy Corrie said after the first day of early voting, she was blown away by the number of volunteers and signs allowed by the ECQ.
“At first, I was blown away by the limited restrictions on the activities of volunteers and their interactions with voters,” she said.
“I have been pretty much advocating since the beginning for the Electoral Commission to put boundaries in place to even the playing field but to also respectfully let voters exercise their right to vote.”
Candidate Andrew Laming was contacted for comment.
