Jimmy Cocking to lodge appeal with NTCAT over Alice Springs mayoral result

Councillor Jimmy Cocking has called for a recount of the Alice Springs mayoral election, announcing he will lodge an appeal to the NT Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Matt Paterson has been elected as the next mayor of Alice Springs. Picture: Supplied.

UPDATE SEP 17: COUNCILLOR Jimmy Cocking has called for a recount of the Alice Springs mayoral election, announcing he will lodge an appeal to the NT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NTCAT).

Mayor Matt Paterson was on Wednesday sworn in, after winning at the ballot box by a margin of just two votes.

If accepted, it would be the second recount triggered in the Alice Springs mayoral election.

“I gave myself the space to consider the options, and the overwhelming choice that I had to make was, given the community needs certainty … and given it’s only two (votes) between us, we need to get a full recount,” Mr Cocking said.

Mr Cocking said he wanted the recount to include a recount of primary votes – about half of the ballots – after the recount carried out by the NT Electoral Commission (NTEC) only recounted preference votes.

While the primary votes had already been counted twice – in accordance with NTEC’s policy – Mr Cocking said the counts lacked proper scrutiny, and his scrutineers were incorrectly told they were not allowed to interact with the counters.

“A partial recount under scrutiny found significant amounts of error,” he said. “If it turns out with the same result that we’ve got, then that’s the way it is, and I’m more than happy to accept that.”

Mr Paterson said he wasn’t letting Mr Cocking’s decision to appeal get in the way of his role as mayor, and he was “just getting on with the job”.

“(Jimmy) is well entitled to do this, and there’s certainly no hard feelings there for Jimmy taking that response,” he said.

Mr Cocking, who received the most votes of all candidates running for council, said he’ll be a “respectful, active and engaged councillor” while the appeal process is underway.

An initial recount was triggered after it was found that 17 votes separated Mr Paterson from Mr Cocking. It’s NTEC’s policy to conduct a recount when the margin is less than 100 mayoral votes.

Mr Cocking initially said he would accept the result of the NTEC’s recount but then backtracked, saying he was unaware the recount would only deal with preference votes.

UPDATE SEP 15: AFTER a painstaking recount of preference votes in the Alice Springs mayoral race, Matt Paterson has been sworn into the position, with a winning margin of just two votes.

The review was triggered after the initial count by the NT Electoral Commission (NTEC) found there were 17 votes separating Mr Paterson and Councillor Cocking. It’s the NTEC’s policy to conduct a recount when that margin is less than 100 for mayoral votes.

Mr Paterson said he owed his victory to his 18-year-old twin sister who both voted in the local government election for the first time this year.

He said the last two weeks had been an “emotional rollercoaster”.

“I’m a bit lost for words to be honest,” he said.

“But the opportunity to represent Alice Springs is something I certainly won’t take for granted.”

Mr Paterson, who is an electrician and former deputy mayor, said the result showed how important it was for all Alice Springs residents to have their say in local government elections.

Matt Paterson was sworn in as mayor on September 15, 2021. Picture: Lee Robinson.

“It was always going to be a tight race,” he said.

“The votes are counted, and that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

“It just goes to show that in a place like Alice Springs, every single person’s vote counts.”

The 30-year-old thanked his supporters and promised to lead a council that represented every person in the Centralian town.

“I don’t want to just represent people who have supported me – I want to represent the whole of Alice Springs, and that’s something I’ll endeavour to do over the next four years.”

Mr Paterson will be joined in the Chamber by Jimmy Cocking, Eli Melky, Mark Coffey, Marli Banks, Steve Brown, Kim Hopper, Allison Bitar and Michael Liddle after being elected as councillors.

For councillors Cocking, Melky and Banks, this marks a return to the Chamber following serving as part of the 13th Council. Mr Melky has also served as part of the 11th and 12th

councils.

Electoral Commissioner Iain Loganathan acknowledged it was a “very close result”, and said it was possible to appeal the outcome if someone has a valid reason to do so.

Electoral Commissioner Iain Loganathan acknowledged it was a “very close result”. Picture: Thomas Morgan

“If anyone wants to contest that result, they can make an application to NTCAT (NT Civil and Administrative Tribunal) in regards to disputing the validity of an election,” he said.

“Any such application needs to be made within 21 days after the conclusion of the election.”

Mr Loganathan said he was confident the result was correct, having sent additional senior staff from Darwin to Alice Springs for the recount.

“We’ve now counted these ballot papers four times,” he said.

“I understand that people could question how the numbers can change. The numbers change because there’s a level of discretion that’s involved, and a lot of this is in the interpretation of handwriting.”

He said, as an example, the number “1” was sometimes difficult to differentiate from the number “7” in some people’s handwriting.

Mr Cocking said he would consider appealing the outcome.

“I’m going to spend some time thinking about what my options are,” he said.

“Right now, I’m going to spend some time with family, friends, and some contacts from the general public and supporters.

“A lot of people are wanting to see a recount just to make sure, because there were only two votes in it.”

Mr Cocking said he’d like to see more resources invested into increasing voter turnout, after more than a third of eligible voters did not submit a ballot this year’s local elections in Alice Springs.

He added that he believed there should be more opportunities available for scrutineer training and more resources for campaign volunteers.

Councillor Mark Coffey, who will join the council for the first time, said he was looking forward to working with the rest of the council members.

“We won’t always agree on things, but I think if we can all focus on doing what’s right for the town of Alice, then we’ll get some good things going,” he said.

Mr Coffey, who is the former Head of the Office of Northern Australia, said the council had a stronger role to play in the economic development of the town.

“Councils in Queensland and WA seem to have a stronger role in the economic development space than here in the Territory,” he said.

“I think we can play more in that space, and that includes revitalising the CBD, and just getting economic activity occurring.”

A former government employee, Mr Coffey said it was important for the council to have a strong working relationship with the NT government.

“Regardless of who’s in power, we rely on them to work with us to improve liveability and all sorts of things in Alice Springs,” he said.

“Building that relationship has to start right now, we need to robust in that relationship, but make it enduring.”

The 14th Alice Springs Town Council was officially sworn in at a ceremony on Wednesday afternoon.

EARLIER: THE Northern Territory Electoral Commission (NTEC) will conduct a recount of Alice Springs ballot papers after Mayor-elect Matt Paterson beat out Jimmy Cocking by just 17 votes.

Mr Cocking, who led the first preference votes and fell to second after the distribution of preferences, said he would accept the outcome of the recount.

Mr Cocking said his scrutineers saw votes being “misallocated”.

“This is procedural fairness, an important check on the system and I owe it to everyone who voted for me to follow this up,” he said.

“Regardless of the final outcome, I look forward to being an active member of the Council working for a better Alice for everyone.”

The official declaration of the election outcome initially pencilled in for Monday will likely be delayed until Wednesday.

EARLIER: AFTER one of the closest Alice Springs mayoral races in history, Matt Paterson has been elected as the next mayor of the Centralian town.

Mr Paterson won the vote on preferences, beating out close contenders Jimmy Cocking and Eli Melky.

Mr Paterson, who is the former deputy mayor and served on the town council for several years, was declared mayor with a margin of just 17 votes between him and Mr Cocking.

Giving “young families and youth opportunities to excel” is one of the main reasons Mr Paterson threw his hat in the ring, he told NT News last month.

“Growing up in Alice Springs gives me the unique opportunity to understand some of the complex issues of our town,” he said.

“It also gives me the opportunity to see what we are missing and how we can continue to improve the amenities in our community to make it more liveable.

“I am taking this opportunity to give back to the community.

“Over the past four years I have delivered on what I have said. If elected the community can have faith in what I have committed to and promised. I have delivered on real local issues.

“That’s why the policies I have put forward are local issues that will deliver results for our community.”

Mr Paterson is a qualified electrician and was a Crick­et Aus­tralia com­mu­ni­ty ambas­sador and cap­tain of a local crick­et team.

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