Frontrunner to replace Liberal MP Mary Wooldridge forced to pull out
In an unexpected discovery, the frontrunner expected to replace retiring Liberal upper house MP Mary Wooldridge has been deemed ineligible to sit in state parliament. Here’s why.
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The frontrunner to replace retiring Liberal upper house MP Mary Wooldridge has pulled out after lawyers for the Liberal Party flagged he was ineligible to sit in state parliament because he was found guilty of improperly claiming a concession train fare as a student.
Emanuele Cicchiello, who has previously stood at state and federal elections for the Liberal Party, withdrew on Thursday as a candidate for the Eastern Metro Legislative Council seat which is being vacated by the former Community Services Minister.
Party insiders had tipped he was the candidate most likely to get the nod from preselectors next month.
He pulled out after lawyers engaged by the party to assess the eligibility of the candidates warned that a finding of guilt for the indictable offence committed when he was student meant he couldn’t sit in parliament.
Mr Cicchiello said while the question of his eligibility “would ultimately be a matter for the Victorian Supreme Court, I do not want to put my family, friends and party through that uncertainty.
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He said the finding of guilt related to an improper claim to a concession train fare more than 25 years ago, for which he was fined $249.
“I was young and I made a mistake – I have never hidden that but I don’t think any fair-minded Victorian would imagine something like that would have such far-reaching consequences,” he said.
He called on both political parties to consider reviewing “the particularly harsh eligibility provisions outlined in the Victorian constitution”.
Under Victorian law an adult convicted or found guilty of an indictable offence punishable by imprisonment for life or for a term of five years is barred from sitting in state parliament.
Originally published as Frontrunner to replace Liberal MP Mary Wooldridge forced to pull out