Allied candidates live outside hotly contested ward Three stooges election row

Andrew Mathieson
LIBERAL party members targeting one of Geelong’s most contentious wards have accused a union organiser of running “dummy” candidates to win a council election.
But ACTU representative and Labor member Andy Richards has accused his Buckley ward rivals of skulduggery in running a party campaign against him.
Candidates Ron Nelson and Angelo Kakouros have alleged that Mr Richards brought three candidates – Maria Canadillas, Fiona Lorimer and Sue Murphy – into the ward election to solely earn votes from their preferences.
Mr Nelson and Mr Kakouros said Mr Richards and the three women all lived outside the ward, which includes Grovedale, Waurn Ponds and Barwon Heads.
“That raises questions with me immediately,” Mr Nelson said.
“Not to run in your own ward certainly means you don’t care for your own community and you’re showing contempt for another.
“I spoke to Andy Richards and he denied it but, now that the preferences are out, that’s obviously what’s happening.”
Mr Richards lost a by-election to Liberal member Andrew Katos in Highton-based Deakin ward earlier this year.
Mr Kakouros said election material distributed to Barwon Heads residents suggested Mr Richards was from southern Geelong and lived “locally” rather than in Highton.
“I think this is an absolute disgrace and an insult to voters’ intelligence,” Mr Kakouros said.
“That’s why I don’t believe in the preference system.”
Mr Kakouros failed to submit his preferences to Victorian Electoral Commission before its deadline this week but said he intended on disclosing them with a mail drop before the ballot.
Mr Richards said both men and another Buckley candidate, former Liberal state aspirant Mick Alexander, were playing party politics in independent council elections.
Mr Richards, who helped oust the Liberals from Corangamite at last year’s federal election, said only three declared Liberal members were running for election in all other City of Greater Geelong wards.
“They’re either running a ticket to get one of them up, in which case two of them are not real candidates, or they’re jockeying for position to take on state and federal members at the next election,” Mr Richards said.
“In either case, they’re not putting the best interest of the ward ahead of their personal interest.”
Mr Richards said he swapped preferences with Ms Lorimer because of similar sustainable development policies.
However, he said he was unaware why Ms Canadillas had directed preferences to him.
Ms Canadillas’s candidate statement on Victorian Electoral Commission’s website referred voter enquiries to Colleen Gibbs.
Ms Gibbs pulled out of the Austin ward election the day after nominations closed amid accusations she was a dummy candidate for Cr John Mitchell, who was re-elected unopposed when a third candidate also withdrew.
Ms Canadillas had not returned the Independent’s call for comment on Wednesday before the paper went to press yesterday.