Canterbury-Bankstown council to miss two Liberal councillors in September election

The Canterbury-Bankstown local government elections have been thrown into disarray as two of the four Liberal candidates were wiped from the ticket. See what this means for the upcoming election.

The Canterbury-Bankstown local government elections have been thrown into disarray as two of the four Liberal candidates were wiped from the ticket.

Sitting Liberal councillors Charlie Ishac and Charbel Abouraad will miss out on contesting the upcoming local election after the Liberal Party failed to submit their candidate nominations to the NSW Electoral Commission by midday Wednesday.

Mr Abouraad, who was looking at his second term at Canterbury-Bankstown council, said he was “disappointed” numerous local government areas were affected, especially the “residents who wanted to vote Liberal on this occasion won’t be able to”.

“I know it’s upsetting but don’t lose faith in the party,” he said.

“This was an administration error and wasn’t a reflection on councillors … we will band together to make sure this never happens again.”

Canterbury Bankstown councillor Charbel Abouraad.

Canterbury Bankstown councillor, Charlie Ishac.

Mr Abouraad said it was a “good thing” Canterbury-Bankstown still had Liberal representation for the September elections and said he had “full confidence in the party that this won’t happen again”.

Fellow Liberal candidates George Zhakia from the Bankstown ward and Sazeda Akter from the Roselands Ward managed to scrape through and onto the party ticket.

Mr Zahkia, who has served on the Labor majority council since 2021, said he was “sad” for his fellow Liberal candidates and they had now had “no chance” to potentially take control of the Labor dominated council.

Mr Zahkia said he “didn’t have any details” on what was behind the blunder and investigations were underway.

Canterbury-Bankstown council currently has three liberal councillors, one independent and nine from Labor, including mayor Bilal El-Hayek.

Liberal Canterbury-Bankstown councillor George Zhakia managed to scrape through and onto the party ticket.

This comes after Richard Shields was sacked as the Liberal Party State Director on Thursday night over the debacle which led to 140 council candidates not being nominated for local government elections.

In a statement, Don Harwin said Mr Shields had been given the opportunity to explain the circumstances to the state executive, but had failed to do so.

“This failure to meet such a fundamental responsibility has rendered his position untenable,” Mr Harwin said.

“As a result, the State Executive has unanimously resolved to terminate the State Director’s employment with immediate effect.”

Canterbury-Bankstown was earlier listed as one of five local councils which may only have “partial nominations”, including Penrith, North Sydney, Georges River and Maitland.

Councils that will likely have no Liberal candidates are the Northern Beaches, Lane Cove, Shoalhaven, Wollongong, Campbelltown, Camden and Blue Mountains.

Clr Ishac and Clr Akter have been contacted for comment.