‘All polling booths will get a visit’: NSW Police push for calm on election day

NSW Police will visit polling booths across the state on Saturday in a bid to ensure tensions do not boil over after threatening and aggressive behaviour at early voting centres prompted the electoral commission to warn that bad behaviour would not be tolerated.

The confirmation of police patrols at polling booths follows a bombardment of complaints about poor behaviour from campaign volunteers, especially in marginal seats where stakes are highest.

In one example in Bennelong, the northern Sydney electorate that is one of the most marginal seats in the country, a man was last week charged with intimidation after he allegedly kicked corflutes and became aggressive towards three volunteers working at the Macquarie Park booth.

Voters are increasingly casting their ballot before the election date, but scenes have been ugly at some booths.Credit: Max Mason-Hubers

Campaigners across the political divide have reported aggression at voting locations as a record number of Australians cast their ballot early this year, with more than 5 million people having voted as of close of business Thursday.

A spokesperson for NSW Police said: “All polling booths across NSW will get a visit from police at some stage tomorrow to ensure there are no breaches of the peace.”

The spokesperson said a police presence at polling centres occurred during federal, state and local government elections, though long-term political observers who have worked on many campaigns said they could not recall seeing police at a polling booth.

Acting Australian electoral commissioner Jeff Pope said on Friday that there had been “isolated incidents” of bad behaviour at voting booths during the pre-polling period.

“We’re all seeing isolated incidents, some concentrated in particular seats, some concentrated … [at] particular voting centres, where we have to call police, and we are incredibly disappointed by some of that behaviour, and we will continue to call the police,” Pope told Radio National Breakfast.

Pope said inner Melbourne “has probably been the more concentrated” area for incidents at voting booths, as well as Bennelong and Sydney’s eastern suburbs electorate of Wentworth.

Simeon Boikov in the Russian consulate in Woollahra in April 2023.Credit: Wolter Peeters

There are more than 500 pre-polling sites across Australia, which have been saturated with campaign volunteers during the almost two weeks of early polling, but there are still concerns that aggression between political rivals could be an issue on election day.

On Tuesday, a high-profile extreme right-wing figure used the messaging app Telegram to call for recruits to turn up en masse to help independent candidate Matthew Camenzuli in the western Sydney seat of McMahon on election day. The electorate has been a Labor seat for more than 50 years and is held by the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen.

The message, sent by Simeon Boikov, who uses the online alias “Aussie Cossack”, included a list of all the polling booths in McMahon. Boikov has been staying in the Russian consulate in Sydney to evade arrest warrants after allegedly assaulting a man at a pro-Ukrainian rally in 2022.

The message asked interested supporters to contact a specific account if they wished to volunteer for the Camenzuli campaign and received 74 likes.

As well as marginal electorates, tensions have also been pronounced in city suburbs where social cohesion has frayed with rising antisemitism and Islamophobia following the war in Gaza.

In one example, NSW Police confirmed they are investigating offensive graffiti, sprayed on the walls of an Islamic School in western Sydney, which called for “no migrants”.

Graffiti found on Friday on the walls of the Australian Islamic College of Sydney in Mount Druitt.Credit:

The graffiti was found early on Friday on the walls of the Australian Islamic College of Sydney in Mount Druitt, and included two instances of the words “no migrants”.

“Albo liar” and “Hamas Albo” were also written on the school walls.

Officers from Mount Druitt Police Area Command have opened an investigation into the incident.

During the campaign, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was also forced to condemn homophobic insults after the father of a Labor MP was overheard antagonising opponents, while Labor has reported Liberal Party volunteers linked to a separatist Christian sect for intimidatory behaviour.