NSW Liberals miss candidate nomination deadline, erase party from several local council election ballots
There will be no Liberal Party candidates on council ballots across several NSW local governments at next month’s elections after an embarrassing blunder by the state arm of the party.
The party’s secretariat missed the electoral commission’s deadline for candidate nominations which closed at noon on Wednesday.
It means would-be candidates will be ineligible to stand for election.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.Several council areas across the state are reportedly affected, including Campbelltown, Camden, Lane Cove, the Northern Beaches in Sydney, as well as Shoalhaven and Wollongong in the Illawarra region
NSW Liberals State director Richard Shields blamed the oversight on a lack of “secretariat resources”.
“With the secretariat resources that we had available unfortunately we were unable to nominate in all of the local government areas that were put forward by the state executive,” he said.
Mr Shields said that “close to 300 Liberal candidates were nominated with the NSW Electoral Commission”.
“The status of nominated Liberal candidates will be communicated upon confirmation from the NSW Electoral Commission,” he continued.
“On behalf of the Secretariat, I would like to apologise to Liberal endorsed councillors that were not nominated and to the party membership more broadly.”
The Nightly understands the NSW Liberals are working closely with the NSW Electoral Commission to quantify the full extent of the blunder.
The final list of election candidates will be known on Thursday afternoon, once nominations are approved by the electoral commission, ahead of a ballot draw.
