Eddy Sarroff says he needs an army of 300 volunteers to beat Mayor Tom Tate on poll day
Eddy Sarroff has made a desperate final hour call-out for volunteers to hand-out at polling booths in his bid to “show Mayor Tate the Gate”. But his rival has hit back.
Council Election
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Eddy Sarroff has made a desperate final hour call-out for volunteers to hand-out at polling booths in his bid to “show Mayor Tate the Gate”.
Mr Sarroff on the eve of Saturday’s local government poll posted on Facebook that “it will be a close result” and gave his personal mobile to get volunteers.
“I need your help on Saturday at the 90 polling booths. Please let me or my team know – time is running out,” he wrote.
But Tom Tate said: “It’s the old adage – you can’t fatten the pig up on market day”.
The two are old rivals, with Mr Tate winning the mayoralty with 37 per cent of the primary vote in 2012. Mr Sarroff polled just more than 18 per cent. Mr Tate secured almost 64 per cent of the vote in 2016.
Campaign insiders say Mr Sarroff’s vote may reach 30 per cent this time around, but the Mayor could poll just more than 50 per cent, meaning the result will not go to preferences.
Mr Sarroff announced he was running just before nominations closed in early February. Forty-six candidates are contesting the poll. Voting is from 8am to 6pm.
Mr Sarroff earlier told the Bulletin before the close on Friday of two weeks of pre-polling the bigger challenge he was facing on election day.
“I’ve only just put my hand up. My campaign has been a well-run campaign,” he said.
“We’ve had as many volunteers as we could on pre-poll. The bottom line is on the day I need 360 to be effective. If the community is saying ‘it’s time’, I need an army on the ground to show Tate the Gate.”
Mr Tate believes those last minute volunteers for Mr Sarroff would not be passionate for the city like his supporters.
“Even if he gets 300-plus, and we have the same number, the quality and passion, if it’s army versus army, one that’s going ‘we don’t want any Eddy in the city and we want Tom’ – these passionate people have been on the journey for a while.
“That’s the big difference. The other difference for him, getting university students and paying them 25 bucks an hour doesn’t have the same feel as a passionate local.
“It means he’s ill prepared. If he’s ill prepared he wasn’t passionate from day one. If you want something and believe in it, you are well prepared.”
Mr Sarroff confirmed he had two paid students out of a team of 26 at pre-poll on Friday.
“Tate has council workers on leave to help his desperate campaign,” he said.
Mr Tate acknowledged he had put resources into covering the whole of the region including the fast growing north where none of his eight rival candidates were strong on signage and presence during pre-poll.
“It’s too hot for them up there,” he said.
Mr Tate suggested Mr Sarroff was also struggling to find volunteers because most residents would remember him as the councillor who threw an agenda at then Mayor Gary Baildon.
“That display of arrogance and poor temperament brought national embarrassment to our city,” he said.
Hinterland-based councillor Glenn Tozer said the Mudgeeraba pre-poll centre had about 1000 votes a day during the first week, which increased to between 1500 to 2000 a day.
“Between 40 and 50 per cent of people will have voted before election day,” he said.
“So pre-polling has been much less than COVID,” he said.
The Bulletin has been told Electoral Commission of Queensland has prepared by hiring more staff for Saturday’s poll.
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