Record number of Greens overwhelm ballot papers in council elections

The Greens could take over several inner city councils after endorsing more candidates than ever before in elections across the state.

Greens candidates will feature on the ballot papers for every ward in Darebin. Picture: supplied

The Greens are poised to strengthen their grip on Victorian councils with a record number of endorsed candidates contesting elections.

The party is standing 124 candidates for local councils, more than any other Victorian election, and is in a position to dominate at least three inner city municipalities.

There are Greens candidates standing in all nine wards for Darebin and Yarra councils and nine contenders for the 11 ward Merri-bek, which could see the party resume control of the municipality once known as Australia’s most left-wing council.

Merri-bek was also being targeted by the Victorian Socialists, which had endorsed 10 candidates.

The minor party, which has backed a total of 81 potential councillors, had eight contenders running in both Darebin and Yarra and seven in Maribyrnong.

According to data provided to the Victorian Electoral Commission, the ALP backed far fewer candidates, endorsing 53, while the Liberals had endorsed just four — all in the City of Melbourne.

Concerns about the growing politicisation of local councils were raised by ratepayer lobby group Council Watch.

President Dean Hurlston said endorsed candidates were not the best outcome for the community.

“The bottom line is that it’s not good to have a councillor with an allegiance to a political party,” Mr Hurlston said.

“It’s not the role of a local councillor to be serving the interests of a party, they are there to represent their community.”

However, the Greens argued the party was being more transparent by publicly endorsing candidates.

“Unlike other parties, the Greens are committed to transparency in local government, and we have publicly endorsed all 124 Greens local government candidates this election,” a spokesperson said.

“This is the highest number of candidates who have ever run for the Victorian Greens in any election.

“All our candidates will fight to tackle the cost of living, end the housing crisis and protect our precious natural environment.”

The Victorian Socialists said it was up to voters to decide who was elected to local government based on the information provided by the candidates.

“That’s how democracy works, and we don’t see any reason to interfere with that process,” the spokesman said.

“If a council candidate endorsed by Victorian Socialists is elected to council, we would expect them to focus on the issues they have said they will in the material they provided to voters.”

Council Watch president Dean Hurlston. Picture: Kiel Egging.

Mr Hurlston said candidates who did not reveal their political allegiance were a “bigger concern”.

“We believe the ballot papers should include details about current and past memberships of political parties,” he said.

“Ideally candidates should have to reveal if they have been a member of a political party in the five years prior to standing for election to avoid people resigning their memberships so they can run without declaring them.”

A Council Watch survey showed more than a third of candidates running as independents were active members of registered political parties or had been in the past.

Mr Hurlston said of the 774 candidates who completed the Council Watch questionnaire, 304 were members or ex-members of political parties including 100 contenders who were current members of the Liberal Party and 49 who were active ALP members.

Voters must complete and post their ballot papers before 6pm on Friday.