FREO ELECTION FIGHT IN LIMBO

FOURTEEN months after the WA Electoral Commission botched the 2023 local government elections in Fremantle and voters are no wiser as to whether the disputed elections will be rerun.
It is six weeks since parties appeared in the Magistrate’s Court and at the time of publication no decision had yet been made on whether to declare the elections invalid.
StreetWise Media has covered legal proceedings since the first court appearance in January this year when the greater Fremantle Community and Business Association Inc and former south ward councillor Marija Vujcic applied to have the election results declared invalid in central and coastal wards.
Coastal ward had the highest ballot return of all four new wards (40.95%). The close result saw current coastal ward councillor Jemima Williamson-Wong win by 70 votes.
Ms Vujcic told StreetWise that maintaining the integrity of the ballot is essential in upholding democracy and ensuring election outcomes are legitimate and representative of voters’ choices. It helps prevent fraud and manipulation and ensures every vote counts.
To make matters worse, the City of Fremantle used hundreds of uncoded ‘spare’ ballot papers to influence the 2023 and 2021 local elections, reported exclusively by StreetWise.