Shoulder-to-shoulder queues as fight breaks out at Crestmead booth

The election in Logan took a nasty turn this morning with a fight breaking out at a busy booth and long queues of people failing to keep the obligatory 1.5m distance. VIDEO

The line-up at Crestmead polling booth this morning where a fight broke out between the father of a Division 8 candidate and a woman handing out cards for mayoral candidate Darren Power

LINES of voters, some with more than 50 people, were queuing at Logan’s five early polling stations this morning.

A crowd at Crestmead failed to keep the regulated 1.5m distance which has been stipulated by Queensland Health to keep the spread of the coronavirus to a minimum.

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Queensland Health said health advice had been provided to Electoral Commission Queensland.

The electoral commission was contacted for comment.

Police were called to the Crestmead booth just after 9.20am after Dale Heremaia, the father of Division 8 candidate Jacob Heremaia, got into an argument with a female volunteer for mayoral candidate Darren Power.

The booth at Browns Plains before Logan City Council staff removed signs.

Crowds were also lining up shoulder to shoulder at Browns Plains this morning where Mr Heremaia had parked a trailer next to the driveway and put up more than 20 campaign signs on a fence.

Logan City Council staff swooped on the booths at Crestmead and Browns Plains this morning after complaints about Mr Heremaia’s trailers and numbers of signs.

The trailer has since been moved to across the street and Returning Officer Ray Langler has told each candidate they can only keep one sign at the booth.

Yesterday, mayoral candidates John Freeman, Stewart Fleming and Allan de Brenni agreed not to employ volunteers to hand out how to vote cards to stop the spread of the virus via human contact.

Instead, they came up with a “Democracy table” where all candidates can place their “how to vote” cards at each booth.

Mayoral candidate Darren Power slammed the idea as a “germ table” and said it was more hygienic for his volunteers to follow strict health procedures and hand the cards out.

Mr Power said he had been side tracked after being contacted by the Office of the independent Election Observer over claims he made on his election material about stopping a 22 per cent pay rise in 2004.

Information on prevention of COVID-19, including about public gatherings is available here: https://www.qld.gov.au/health/conditions/health-alerts/coronavirus-covid-19/take-action/coronavirus-prevention