Candidate boycotts booth due to virus
COUNCIL politics has become so grubby a Townsville candidate has called it quits on manning the pre-poll booth, saying the potential of spreading the coronavirus was too high.
But the local government elections across Queensland on March 28 “must proceed”, the peak body representing councils has said, throwing support behind the Local Government Minister.
Coronavirus fears have pushed four times more voters to lodge their ballots early as compared to the council elections in 2016, and so far across the state 540,000 postal vote applications had been received with more emails still being processed by the Electoral Commission of Queensland.
The early rush to the polls isn’t likely to make a difference to the result, Griffith University senior political lecturer Dr Paul Williams said, because the campaign has been so “low energy” it’s a certain indication the electorate is not in the mood for change.
Townsville City
Council candidate Sandra Chesney (Div 1), in an email to local ECQ returning officer Tracey Street, said she had decided not to have a booth or hand out how-to-vote cards at the West End pre-poll station because it was putting the public at risk.
Ms Chesney said she witnessed two doctors entering the polling booth with their hands in their pockets to avoid contact, and saw another candidate’s volunteer lick his finger before handing out a howto-vote card.
“At this point reality hit home that I had no right to put the community at risk for the sake of an election,” she said.
The ECQ has put in place measures to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 spread, including extending pre-poll booth hours to 9pm and opening them on Saturday.
Vulnerable voters, like the elderly, are advised to vote between 9am and 11am.
Those handing out how to vote cards have also been asked to “social distance” themselves at the booth.
The Local Government Association of Queensland yesterday declared the election “must proceed”, with president Mark Jamieson saying voters needed certainty.
“Current health advice indicates attending a polling booth presents no higher risk than attending a shopping centre, going to school or work or using public transport,” he said. Dr Williams said this year’s Queensland local government election had been “low energy”, mainly due to a lack of resources brought on by tough new anti-corruption legislation, voter apathy, and little desire esire for change.