NORTH-East ward residents need to elect a new councillor to replace their former representative Linda Aitken who is now the City of Wanneroo Mayor.
Under the Local Government Act 1995 there is no opportunity for the council to allow the North-East ward to remain with only one councillor until the next local government election in October 2023.
Section 4.17(3) of the Act provides that local governments with no wards or wards with five or more offices, may leave a vacancy unfilled until the next ordinary election, with the approval of the electoral commissioner, provided 80 per cent of the offices are still filled.
But this does not apply to the City of Wanneroo, which has seven wards each with two councillors.
The North-East ward consists of the suburbs of Butler, Nowergup, Merriwa, Ridgewood and north Clarkson.
On September 13 Wanneroo councillors voted for the extraordinary North-East ward election to be conducted as a postal election and for it to be held on Wednesday, December 14.
The officer’s report said postal elections had a significantly higher participation rate than in-person elections and compared the extraordinary mayoral election on the September 2 with a participation rate of more 19 per cent with a recent in-person extraordinary election in the Town of Cambridge, which had a 4.75 per cent participation rate.
North ward councillor Chris Baker, who moved the motion, which included that the election would be conducted as a postal election, said there were some concerns in the community about the legal efficacy of postal voting.
Cr Baker said he would like a random audit conducted by the electoral commissioner during the voting period if that was possible.
South ward councillor Paul Miles said he would like the city’s administration to request some form of voter checking – not every vote – just to make sure the signature panel that had been filled out was “from that person from that house”.
Chief executive officer Daniel Simms said he would discuss any opportunities for a local government audit with the electoral commissioner and also invite the Western Australian Local Government Association CEO to that meeting.
According to the officer’s report $345,400 has been allocated for the Western Australian Electoral Commission to conduct the two extraordinary elections with $290,910 allocated for the extraordinary mayoral election and $43,636 for the extraordinary North-East ward election.
Deputy mayor Brett Treby said it was never the preferred view of the council to go through the two extraordinary elections and cost the community what would now be the best part of half-a-million dollars.
Cr Treby said it was a shortfall in both the Local Government Act and the Electoral Act that did not allow the power to either the Local Government Minister or the Electoral Commission commissioner permission to exercise what would have been a more beneficial outcome for ratepayers.
South-West ward councillor Vinh Nguyen said he hoped Local Government Minister John Carey’s reforms would allow for a vacancy to remain until the next election otherwise every time an elected member resigned for example the city would always have to incur the cost of an extraordinary election.
Once a new North-East ward councillor is elected their term will expire on October 18, 2025.
