Media Release 1999: AEC to Petition Court Disputing Hobart ATSIC Election

27 October 1999

The Australian Electoral Commission is responsible under the ATSIC Act 1989 for the conduct of the current round of ATSIC Regional Council elections which will eventually lead to the election of the ATSIC Commissioners. Polling day for the Regional Council elections was on 9 October, and Aboriginal voters across the country cast their vote to elect their Regional Councillors. The polls are now in the process of being declared by the Regional Returning Officers.

The ATSIC Regional Returning Officer for the Hobart Ward today declared the result of the election for the Hobart Ward in Tasmania.

However, the AEC discovered during the preliminary scrutiny in this Ward, that 78 postal votes could not be entered into the count, because the voter detail slips had been separated from the envelopes containing the ballot papers at the time when they were handed in to a polling booth on polling day.

All ATSIC votes are declaration votes, which means that the eligibility of the voter, as recorded on the voter detail slip attached to the envelope containing the ballot papers, must be checked against the Commonwealth electoral roll at the preliminary scrutiny, before the envelopes are opened and the ballot papers entered into the count.

The AEC now proposes to dispute the result of the Hobart Ward election by exercising its right under Schedule 4 of the ATSIC Act to petition the Federal Court, as the Court of Disputed Returns. The petition will ask the Court to examine the evidence that 78 voter detail slips were separated from their envelopes at the polling booth and before the preliminary scrutiny, and will ask the Court to make orders that would allow these votes to be counted if the voter eligibility can be established.

This would have the effect of saving the franchise for these 78 postal voters.

The AEC has no evidence yet that the 78 postal votes not admitted to the count would have altered the result of the Hobart Ward election, which was declared today. That is for the Court to decide.

In the meantime, it is a settled principle of electoral law, that an election result (and any contingent and subsequent elections) stands, until the Court orders otherwise. As this matter will shortly be before the Federal Court the AEC will not be making any further public comment on the details of the petition.

Further Information: Alex Stanelos (Hobart) 03 6235 0500