WA Electoral Commission under fire over ‘unacceptable’ stuff ups

Premier Roger Cook has blasted the WA Electoral Commission but stopped short of calling for the resignation of commissioner Robert Kennedy as voters experienced massive delays at booths and vote counts moved at a glacial pace.

“I just want to say that it was unacceptable yesterday, the waiting times with people who are having to wait to vote, and it was unacceptable that we actually ran out of some ballot papers in some polls,” Cook said.

Premier Roger Cook was not happy with how the WA Electoral Commission ran the election on Saturday.Credit: Trevor Collens.

“Obviously, they could get some from others but we were disappointed with the WAEC’s running of the election yesterday, and I’m sure a lot of people shared our frustration with having to wait so long.”

When asked whether Kennedy should resign Cook said: “let’s just wait until after the election is done and dusted.”

Political parties were frustrated with the speed at which results were being fed through from the commission last night.

Kennedy said he acknowledged the issues being raised and said an investigation would occur to find out what went wrong.

“We’ve received feedback directly, and we are hearing the concerns being expressed in the community,” he said.

“I want to be clear, I will do a full and thorough investigation into what has occurred right now. However, our focus is on our polling places across the state.

“Most polling places operated efficiently, however, we recognise that some locations experience challenges, including queues and ballot paper shortage issues.”