‘Withholding democracy’: Liverpool mayor defends privatised election

The mayor of Liverpool has come out swinging against naysayers who claimed the council’s privatised election ‘failed,’ amid reports of polling booth bungles.

Liverpool Mayor Ned Mannoun. Picture: Amaani Siddeek

Liverpool mayor Ned Mannoun has come out swinging against naysayers who claimed the council’s privatised election “failed,” arguing the blame for polling booth hiccups should be placed on the NSW government for greenlighting the election at the last minute.

The response comes after residents reported turning up to long queues at closed and understaffed polling booths for the Liverpool City Council election on Saturday.

Mr Mannoun said any election day issues were caused by council receiving the go-ahead within one day of pre-polling on September 5, after the Minister for Local Government Ron Hoenig did not proceed with threats to suspend the council – and postpone the election – while a public inquiry was held into allegations of widespread dysfunction at the organisation.

“If anyone is to blame here it’s the NSW government for withholding democracy from the people,” Mr Mannoun said.

“If we had more than one business day to run an election we would have had more people working

“Because of the uncertainty with the election, (election staff) went and worked in other council areas.”

Residents lined up at Carnes Hill Library on local government election day to vote in the Liverpool City election. Picture: Amaani Siddeek

Liverpool City and Fairfield were the only two councils in the state to privately run elections through the Australian Election Company.

This year marked the first time Liverpool opted to appoint a private contractor, while Fairfield Council had done so since 2012.

Mr Mannoun, who was elected for another term as mayor according to an early election landslide, also took aim at Liverpool state Labor MP Charishma Kaliyanda for comments made to this masthead about voting delays on Saturday.

Ms Kaliyanda said the issues encountered on the day, which included confused residents queuing at polling booths which were ruled out weeks in advance, “lies squarely at the feet of Ned Mannoun, who … owes the people of Liverpool an explanation as to why he spent ratepayer money on these failed private elections”.

In response to her comments, the mayor defended the privatised election and suggested Ms Kaliyanda take up her concerns with Mr Hoenig.

Long wait times were reported in Liverpool, as well as Fairfield and the City of Sydney. Picture: Amaani Siddeek

A spokesperson for Ron Hoenig said the election was a “failed example” of privatised elections. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

“If she has issues with councils running private elections, she should go to the minister and ask for the legislation to be changed,” Mr Mannoun said.

“The decision (to privatise the election) was made by all of the council, under the legislation, and it was recommended to save ratepayers money.

“She should be more concerned with how people are stuck in traffic for hours on 15th Ave between Hoxton Park Rd and Cowpasture Rd rather than just on the election.”

When it came to the unavoidable issue of long wait times, Mr Mannoun pointed to the City of Sydney election where key centres reported queues of up to two hours long.

He also claimed the Liverpool election had been an overwhelming success with early numbers reportedly indicating the council had the “highest voter turnout in the state”.

A spokesman for Mr Hoenig, on the other hand, said the Liverpool election was yet “another failed example of the privatisation of a public service”.