‘Far too long’: Fears it will take years to resolve Melbourne council vote scandal

Voters in two Melbourne councils could face years of uncertainty over the fairness of their elections after allegations of ballot fraud emerged, sparking an electoral probe and a referral of the matter to the police.

Victorian Electoral Commissioner Sven Bluemmel on Wednesday said there had been suspected postal-vote tampering in two wards – one in Knox City Council and the other in Whittlesea City Council – with some voters lodging multiple ballots by mail.

The two councillors who were elected – Peter Lockwood in Knox and Stevan Kozmevski in Whittlesea – both denied wrongdoing on Wednesday. They called for a quick investigation into the almost 200 suspicious postal ballots.

The VEC has applied to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) to review the results of both elections, but experts fear a ruling could take several years.

It follows an unrelated vote-tampering incident at Moreland Council – now Merri-bek – in the 2020 local government elections, which took more than two years to resolve.

Monash councillor Geoff Lake, a lawyer who worked on the Moreland VCAT case, on Wednesday told The Age that the VEC had taken “far too long” to review those anomalies.

“Hopefully, it will learn from that experience and will ensure that a review of these irregularities occurs urgently,” Lake said.

The commission could not say which candidates the suspicious votes were directed to – as the actual ballots are anonymous — and Bluemmel did not level any accusation against individuals. The VEC also said there was no evidence the alleged vote-tampering in one council was related to the other.

In Whittlesea in Melbourne’s north, the VEC found at least 128 suspicious ballots in the Lalor ward election. In Knox in Melbourne’s east, there were at least 61 irregular returns in the Baird ward.

“There are serious offences in the Local Government Act for interfering with an election,” Bluemmel said.

The VEC has declared the election results, which means Lockwood and Kozmevski will be sworn in and sit on the councils while the probes take place.

Peter Lockwood and Stevan Kozmevski will have their election wins in Knox and Whittlesea reviewed by VCAT after the VEC detected alleged postal-vote tampering.Credit: Whittlesea Council, The Age

Lockwood – a previous Labor state MP and councillor – won Baird ward by 377 votes, defeating independent incumbent Yvonne Allred after preferences in a field of five candidates.

He denied any involvement in the alleged tampering and called for a return to in-person voting at the next local government elections. Voting shifted entirely to postal ballot in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I am hoping for a speedy process so that we can get a resolution sooner rather than later, [and] look forward to my name being cleared,” he said. “I would prefer in-person voting so that we don’t have these problems.”

Allred said she would “respect and stand by the VEC’s declaration of Peter Lockwood” as the elected Knox councillor.

“The potential subversion of our democratic process is deeply disappointing. However, I commend the VEC for their diligence in detecting these irregularities and their swift action,” she said in a statement on Wednesday.

In Whittlesea, Kozmevski – a former councillor and endorsed Labor candidate – won the Lalor ward by just 39 votes over independent Ellen McNaught.

“It’s not me,” Kozmevski said. “I had one ballot paper, I voted once.”

Kozmevski said it was up to the VEC and authorities to sort out what had happened as quickly as possible.

“It’s for them to look into because the integrity of the election is vital,” he said.

Local Government Minister Melissa Horne on Wednesday commended the VEC on its work upholding the integrity of the election to rapidly identify the matter.

“This is a serious matter – electoral integrity is the cornerstone of our democratic process. Any instance of voter fraud is unacceptable, erodes community trust and diminishes the institutions where it has taken place.”

But state opposition local government spokesman Peter Walsh said the councillors should not be sworn in until the matter was resolved.

“This matter needs to be resolved as a matter of urgency and should not be caught in the long VCAT waiting list. The communities of Knox and Whittlesea expect and deserve the representation they voted for,” Walsh said.

The VEC says it detected the irregularities two weeks ago but due to legislation constraints, had to continue with the elections without pausing them. It can challenge the outcome only after a new council is declared.

The penalty for voting interference in Victoria is up to $99,000 in fines and five years in prison.

“I would like to [say] to those who seek to subvert our electoral process: there will be consequences,” Bluemmel said.

“We have these processes in place to make sure this is caught and caught early, and this shows that the processes are working.”

In 2020, an unrelated vote-tampering scandal resulted in Milad El-Halabi being unduly elected to the Moreland Council. It took until March 2023 – more than two years after the election – for VCAT to find the Labor candidate had benefited from voter fraud.

El-Halabi resigned from the council 18 months after the election when police laid charges. He was spared jail this year after entering a guilty plea but was fined $20,000 with an 18-month community correction order.

VCAT vice president Judge Michael Macnamara, who presided over the case, said in his findings that it was “difficult to disagree” that the case had been “inordinately delayed”.

The March 2023 judgment said it was “plainly unsatisfactory for there to be not even a determination at the primary level of a challenge to the outcome of an election to office for a four-year term for a period of 2½ years”.

The VEC, which agreed El-Halabi should have been found unduly elected through voter fraud, defended its actions and said it acted within its powers and appropriately.

Helen Davidson, an independent Merri-bek councillor who had pushed for El-Halabi’s election to be overturned in VCAT last term, questioned whether there was a big enough deterrent for meddling with postal votes.

“It undermines the democratic process at the most fundamental level of government, local council,” Davidson told The Age on Wednesday.

Oscar Yildiz, an independent councillor in the same ward who joined Davidson in seeking to have El-Halabi removed, told The Age it was “abhorrent” tampering had allegedly happened again.

While he believed postal voting was a risk, he did not think the government should change the way council elections were run because in-person voting was so resource-intensive.

“Postal voting does, I think, open the floodgates,” Yildiz said. “I’m shocked but I’m not surprised.”

Despite the likely delays, Lake said he was glad to see the VEC had been vigilant in identifying potential irregularities to protect democracy.

“People should not rush to judgment on postal voting in response to these latest concerns,” Lake said, pointing to resources, convenience and turnout.

“The fact these concerns are being picked up and are being referred to appropriate review should provide confidence that any attempts at ballot tampering will be identified, carefully scrutinised, and election outcomes voided if necessary.”

A Victoria Police spokeswoman confirmed it had received a referral from the VEC that would be assessed by detectives from the financial crime squad. The Local Government Inspectorate may also investigate.

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