Nominations open for Sept. Council Election

“Most people treat their local Council with hostility … until you try to take it away from them”

You can quote me on that.

We all know the story. After years of amalgamation threats, the first Cabonne Council elections since 2012 will be held on Saturday 9 September.

Free of merger distractions, it is to be hoped that a good handful of candidates will step forward from the 10,000 odd eligible electors – most of whom made their voice heard during the amalgamation fight.

Nominations for the election open Monday 31 July and close at 12:00 noon on Wednesday, 9 August 2017.

Nominations must be lodged with the Returning Officer for the relevant Council area. Details of how to nominate are available on the website www.votensw.info
Cabonne Shire Council is an undivided Local Government Area and has no Wards.

However, at the 2012 election despite the abolition of the Ward system a pseudo ward system of locality based Groups (usually of about 4-6 candidates) emerged to dominate the election.

Cabonne was the only rural local government area in the region (including Parkes, Forbes, Cowra and Blayney to have formed Groups for the election. (Wellington had one Group).

However the spread of votes across Groups together with below the line voting prevented any localities dominating representation.

Indeed there were few surprises in the candidates to take the 12 seats on the new Council, even if only one candidate outside of a group was elected.

At this stage the Express has not been informed which of the current councillors will stand again. It is also doubtful whether candidates will form Groups again.
So, put your money where your mouth was – nominate now.

(P.S. You need to put your heart into it though. I ran in 2012 and scored 59 first preference votes and the nickname “Mr Success”. I think it had something to do with my promise to do absolutely nothing!)