By Adam Carey
The result of a council election in Melbourne’s north has been declared void due to ballot-paper rigging, which will send voters to a byelection.
Veteran Labor-aligned councillor Stevan Kozmevski has lost his position on Whittlesea City Council after the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) nullified the result in the council’s Lalor ward due to “attempted and actual interference with the election”.
City of Whittlesea councillor Stevan Kozmevski has had his election to the council voided due to vote fraud. It is not alleged he was involved.Credit: Fairfax Media
Kozmevski was successful in October’s council election with a margin of just 39 votes, but electoral officers later discovered 81 suspicious returned ballots. The interference might have affected the result, VCAT found in its judgment, handed down on Thursday.
Neither VCAT nor the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) have suggested Kozmevski was involved. The perpetrators of the vote-rigging scheme have not been found, despite a police investigation.
Kozmevski said he intended to run again when a byelection is held. A postal ballot has been scheduled for August.
“It is disappointing to have to return to a byelection due to the behaviour of a small group. The attempted fraud by person or persons unknown on behalf of a candidate whose platform was simply anti-Labor Party is disturbing,” he said.
“Their attempt failed miserably as the preferred candidate for the fraud ran last in the ballot and the flow of preferences directed against me was not enough to change the result.”
The VEC submitted that the scheme was designed to elect Nicholas Hajichristou, who ultimately polled third out of three candidates in Lalor ward.
The VEC did not submit that Hajichristou was responsible for, or involved in, the fraud.
Last year’s council elections were conducted by postal ballot. Electoral officers suspected interference in Lalor ward when they identified “a pattern of incorrect dates of birth and similar styles of handwriting on the declaration envelopes” from a number of streets in the same pocket within the ward.
The Victorian Electoral Commission map of where council voting ballots were stolen in Whittlesea.Credit: VEC
The VEC submitted to the tribunal that envelopes were stolen from letterboxes, fraudulently completed and submitted in a scheme to influence the result.
Acting Electoral Commissioner Dana Fleming praised “the significant efforts of staff at the VEC who identified the irregularities and supported VCAT with its inquiry”.
“To those who seek to subvert our electoral processes, there will be consequences to your actions. We will detect your efforts, and we will act,” Fleming said.
A separate application to VCAT regarding potential fraud in the election of Knox City Council’s ward of Baird last year is still to be decided.
Local government in Whittlesea has been riven by instability for years.
Administrators governed the council between 2020 and 2024 after the state Labor government sacked the council due to political infighting.
Elections were held last year, but then mayor Aidan McLindon was suspended from his position and from the council for six months in April over misconduct claims, including bullying, which he has denied. Whittlesea’s 10 other councillors had already unanimously passed a no-confidence vote in him.
Victorian Local Government Minister Nick Staikos has also ordered a commission of inquiry into the City of Whittlesea and its “serious and systematic” governance problems.
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