Sent offline by electoral glitch
FRUSTRATED candidates for the upcoming Cairns Regional Council election have been forced to leave their nominations until the dying moments due to technical issues.
Cairns NQSA mayoral candidate Jen Sackley headed to the Electoral Commission of Queensland office in Bungalow yesterday to hand in the paperwork for her nine-strong team.
“I’ve been to the electoral officer, who was kind enough to print out all of the new documentation for us,” she said.
“I was halfway through processing the nominations for our candidates and nothing could move forward.”
Ms Sackley said she had been told by an ECQ staff member the organisation did not know how its new online nomination system would function under pressure.
“As a Queenslander, I felt violently sick to my stomach that our democracy shouldn’t be taken seriously,” Ms Sackley said.
Independent mayoral candidate Georgia Babatsikos managed to get her nomination in last week, but not without a serious headache.
She had to go to the office in person and use cash because it was not equipped with credit card facilities.
“The system’s not working and you can’t pay online, and you can’t even do EFTPOS at the office – you have to bring cash,” she said.
“How backwards is that?” Ms Sackley refused to use cash and said the ECQ would receive a bank cheque from her whether it liked it or not.
She and Ms Babatsikos were by no means in the minority, with a steady stream of exasperated council candidates walking out of the ECQ office doors over the past week.
An ECQ spokeswoman acknowledged there were problems – and not just in Cairns.
“As this is a new system, some technical issues have been experienced since candidate nominations opened, however, candidates experiencing difficulties of any kind are still able to nominate by downloading the nomination form …” she said.
“If candidates have any concerns they can contact their returning officer who can verify their enrolment.”
Nominations close at noon today. Ballots determining the order candidates’ names appear will be drawn tomorrow.
AS A QUEENSLANDER, I FELT VIOLENTLY SICK TO MY STOMACH THAT OUR DEMOCRACY SHOULDN’T BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY.
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