Kempsey voters will return to the polls within 3 months of 5 May, the date when the election of the current Councillors will be deemed void.
The NSW Supreme Court has handed down its orders on the successful application by the NSW Electoral Commission to void the result of the local government election in three shires, including Kempsey, and ordered that a new election be held. This decision was originally announced on Thursday 17 March.
The ruling is as follows:
- The election of the eight councillors will be declared void effective 3 May 2022, requiring a by-election within 3 months of that date.
- The NSW Electoral Commission will pay council's legal costs.
- The NSW Electoral Commission will offer to reimburse candidates' lawful electoral expenditure.
- The entire councillor election result will be voided when the Court hands down formal orders on 5 April. The new election will need to be held within three months of that date.
The NSW Electoral Commission will determine a date for the by-election within 90 days of the the 3 May declaration.
The Kempsey Mayoral election was not materially impacted and the election of Kempsey Shire Mayor Leo Hauville was not challenged by the Electoral Commission. As such he will remain in office until the next local government election in 2024.
The current councillors will continue to serve until the day of the by-election.
The Court previously emphasised that there was no wrongdoing on the part of the candidates who were named as defendants and noted that they regrettably would bear the burden of the failure of the iVote system.
The NSW Electoral Commission revealed in December that some users of their iVote system were unable to gain access to the system to vote in the local government elections due to technical issues in the process run by the commission.
In the case of Kempsey Shire Council there were 34 electors who were approved by the Electoral Commission but were unable to vote and did not vote by other means. Analysis of the potential outcome of those 34 votes is what promoted John Schmidt, the Electoral Commissioner to seek a declaration that our Councillor election be declared void.
