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Non-citizen ratepayers will be disenfranchised unless they enrol for November council vote

By Latrobe City Council - 16th September 2005 - Back to News

A number of ratepayers who don’t hold Australian Citizenship, yet who qualify to vote in local government elections, will find that although they have received ballot papers for Council elections in the past; on this occasion they will be unable to vote in November unless they actively enrol themselves on the CEO’s list.

Issuing a warning that there is only a two-week enrolment period left for names to be added to the CEO’s list, Latrobe City’s Chief Executive Officer Paul Buckley, said that almost ten-percent of Latrobe residents are not Australian citizens; and a large number of these, as ratepayers, qualify to have their say on who should represent them on Council.

"If ratepayers in this category would like to vote in the council election, they must apply for enrolment on the CEO’s list before 4pm Friday 30 September," Mr Buckley said.

Mr Buckley said that residents who hold entitlement to vote in State and Federal elections and who are correctly enrolled with the Victorian Electoral Commission, will automatically receive their postal ballot papers prior to the election.

Ballot papers for the November council election will be sent to all of those on the Electoral Commission roll and those on the CEO’s list.

"Changes to the Local Government Act recently introduced, affected several aspects of existing enrolment entitlements, particularly in respect to non-Australian citizens who can be enrolled on the CEO’s list," Mr Buckley said.

"A number of people in this category who have automatically been sent ballot papers in the past, will find that unless they have actively enrolled prior to the deadline on 30 September, that they have been disenfranchised for this election," Mr Buckley explained.

"Latrobe City is making a concerted effort to alert residents and ratepayers to these changes and the need for some people to enrol, so there are no ‘surprises’ further down the track.

Application forms for enrolment are available at Latrobe City service centres in Moe, Morwell and Traralgon.

Ratepayers wishing to establish their current status on the electoral roll for the November local government election, can contact Neil Cooper at Latrobe City, telephone 1300 367 700.

The legislative changes also affect the voting entitlements of people who own property in several wards. Previously if an elector lived in one ward of the municipality and owned property in another ward of the municipality they were entitled to a vote in each ward. Changes to the Act mean that electors will now only have one vote in a municipality.

Changes to the Act also affect the number of entitlements for any one rateable property on the CEO’s list. In the past, the first two owners of a property as shown on the council records were automatically entitled to be enrolled and other owners and occupiers could apply to be enrolled. There must now be no more than two voting entitlements for any one rateable property, but the legislation allows for the owners to decide which two are to appear on the roll.

The entitlements of multiple owners of a property whose names appear on the State or Federal electoral roll, are not altered.

Source: www.gippsland.com

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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