Serpentine-Jarrahdale local Shaye Mack in court battle over validity of council election due to interference

A ratepayer has taken it upon himself to get to the bottom of a local government election saga after feeling “very let down” by the WA Electoral Commission. Shaye Mack took his concerns to court after becoming dissatisfied with WAEC’s handling of complaints. Mr Mack was a candidate in the most recent Serpentine-Jarrahdale council election, where two people who campaigned for his opponent, councillor Gurdeep (Gary) Singh, were convicted of stealing blank voting ballots from letterboxes before the election. Cr Singh confirmed his ex-wife and friend were the people involved, but claimed he had nothing to do with the crime. Further court cases have exposed that not only were there stolen ballots, but additional ballots were believed to have been fraudulently signed and submitted. It is not clear who the perpetrators may have been. Mr Mack said there was knowledge of “election interference” since last year and was disappointed that he had to submit an invalidity complaint to the courts because WAEC would not. WAEC did not believe the wrongdoings would have affected the result of the election - despite acknowledging the democratic process had been “marred”. “It has taken myself as a ratepayer to take it further by putting in a complaint to the courts at my own cost,” Mr Mack said. To date, he estimates to have spent almost $500 on court costs and “hundreds of hours trying to find out what happened”. Limited to what he could say as the matter is before the courts, Mr Mack said he was looking forward to the verdict next month. The court case aims to determine whether a by-election should be held for the ward affected. Mr Mack believed Local Government Minister John Carey and Electoral Affairs Minister John Quigley needed to “step-up to create a better way to conduct a fair democratic electoral process which could not easily be tampered with”. He also wanted WAEC to investigate allegations of electoral tampering “much more thoroughly”. WAEC, which has previously said it was inappropriate to comment while court proceedings were underway, said it takes all reasonable steps to ensure that costs are not “unduly incurred by other parties” and “does not seek to recover costs where it would be improper to do so”. “Separately, the commission does investigate possible offences against the Local Government Act where it is in the public interest to protect the integrity of local government elections,” a WAEC spokesperson said. The taxpayer-funded body has also so far declined to hand over any documents The West requested using Freedom of Information laws.