Media statement concerning 2017 Local government elections

Local government elections are to be held on Saturday, 9 September 2017. Nominations for these elections closed at noon on Wednesday, 9 August 2017. As part of their nomination papers, candidates are required to provide a Candidate Information Sheet in the form of a statutory declaration.

By close of nominations a total of 2,019 nomination papers (1,956 Councillor and 63 Mayoral) had been received. A total of 24 nominations were rejected as being defective. Of these, 11 had defects in the Candidate Information Sheet, of which 7 were apparent defects in the completion of the statutory declaration.

Following the close of nominations, a number of candidates whose nominations were rejected because of the apparent defects in completing the statutory declaration approached the Electoral Commissioner to ask that the rejection of their nominations be re-examined.

The Electoral Commissioner sought advice on this matter from the Crown Solicitors Office. In light of this advice it appears there are sufficient grounds for the rejected nominations to be re-examined.

Accordingly, the Electoral Commissioner asked relevant Returning Officers to re-examine the rejected nominations. Following their re-examination of the nomination forms the Returning Officers have determined that 7 rejected candidate nominations in the following council areas will be accepted and fresh ballot draws will be conducted at 2pm on Tuesday, 15 August 2017.

• Cootamundra-Gundagai (4 councillor nominations accepted)

• Orange (1 councillor nomination accepted)

• Newcastle - Ward 3 (1 councillor nomination accepted)

• Ryde - East Ward (1 councillor nomination accepted)

It should be stressed that in this action the Electoral Commissioner is not reopening the nominations process itself.