CHINESE COUNCIL QUERY

A C HI NESE- B ORN Hobart City Council candidate has been accused of stacking the electoral roll with overseas students to get elected.

Yongbei Tang, an Australian citizen who has lived in Tasmania for 20 years, says she is following the rules and has done nothing wrong.

A CHINESE-born Hobart City Council alderman candidate accused of stacking the electoral roll with Chinese students to get elected says she has done nothing wrong.

Yongbei Tang, an Australian citizen who has lived in Tasmania for 20 years, is seeking a seat on the Hobart City Council at the October elections. She is the treasurer for the Multicultural Council of Tasmania and the president of the Chinese Cultural Society of Tasmania.

Ms Tang said she was running because she felt a desire to give back to the community.

“My platform is very clear and this is to enable the economic, social and cultural development of all residents of Hobart,” she said.

In journalist Charles Woolley’s piece in today’s TasWeekend, Hobart Alderman Marti Zucco says Ms Tang has been active in the student commun- ity and is behind a move to “exploit an electoral loophole and stack the rolls with Chinese students to get elected”.

But Ms Tang said she carefully followed the rules.

“On August 14, I was invited by a UTAS students organisation called the Chinese traditional board game and culture exchange society.

“We all promote and encourage people to vote for us, it’s the same as anyone else going to a group of people and encouraging them to vote.”

International students who live in Hobart can enrol to vote in local government elections by applying to get on the general manager’s roll, as long as they can provide a supporting document with their completed enrolment form showing their name and current address.

The general manager’s roll is for people who are entitled to vote in a local government election other than those included on the electoral roll.

The general manager’s roll closed yesterday with 1916 people on the list comprised of 662 corporate bodies, 665 nonresident owners and 589 non-Australian citizens. There were 1814 enrolled on the list in 2014.

Ald Zucco said transient residents should not decide the council election.

“Only permanent residents and Australian citizens should have the right to vote in local government elections,” he said.

“There could be a scenario that a person in Tasmania on a short to medium-term visa could be elected as lord mayor or alderman.”

Tasmanian University Union international students officer Hans Zhuang said students who were in Hobart for a year or more should be given the opportunity to vote.

Council general manager Nick Heath said he was confident in the checks made to ensure those on the GM’s roll were eligible to vote.