VEC retires 16 local council election candidates

Monday 30 September 2024

For immediate release

Sixteen local council election candidates across the state have been retired after being found ineligible to nominate.

Many of these are a result of routine checking by the Department of Government Services and Local Government Victoria crosschecking the VEC’s list of candidates with the register of local government candidate training. This process identified that as of Monday 30 September, 12 candidates did not complete their training as declared in their nominations.

It is a legislative requirement for candidates to complete this training in the 2 years before election day, in order to be able to nominate. As part of the nomination process, candidates are required to declare they have completed the training and specify a completion date for the training. Over 99% of candidates successfully completed the training.

Before retiring each candidate, the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) provided them with an opportunity to respond to the intention to retire them, as required by the Local Government (Electoral) Regulations 2020. As a result, some candidates were subsequently matched against the register of local government candidate training and were not retired.

This brings the total number of retired candidates to 16, after 4 candidates were retired just after the close of nominations after being found ineligible to nominate. This brings the current total number of candidates running in the elections to 2,215.

The list of 16 retired candidates as of 30 September 2024 is below. View our updated list.

List of retired candidates to date

  • Darren LUDOWYKE (Whitehorse City Council, Eley Ward)*
  • Matt PERKINS – (Banyule City Council, Griffin Ward)*
  • Ashok SHERWAL – (Wyndham City Council, Werribee Park Ward)*
  • Anand SHARMA – (Hume City Council, Mount Ridley Ward)*
  • Christine MAYNARD (Yarra City Council, Melba Ward)
  • Renee JACKSON (Frankston City Council, Elisabeth Murdoch Ward)
  • Ben FRAWLEY (Frankston City Council, Yamala Ward)
  • David GREENWOOD (Greater Geelong City Council, You Yangs Ward)
  • Paula MORGAN (Hobsons Bay City Council, Laverton Ward)
  • Mohamad ABBOUCHE (Hume City Council, Bababi Marning Ward)
  • Tegan DUNNE (Manningham City Council, Westerfolds Ward)
  • Wendy ROWLES (Maroondah City Council, Bungalook Ward)
  • Bill PENROSE (Nillumbik Shire Council, Bunjil Ward)
  • Simone WHITE (Darebin City Council, South Central Ward)
  • Bill DAISH (Mornington Peninsula Shire Council, Briars Ward)
  • Matt STEPHENSON (East Gippsland Shire Council)

*These candidates were retired prior to ballot papers being printed and will not appear on ballot papers. As the remaining retirements occurred after ballot papers had been printed, they cannot be changed to remove the retired candidates. When counting votes for these elections, the candidates’ votes will be passed on to other candidates according to voters' preferences.

The VEC is working with Local Government Victoria to resolve additional potential retirements related to non-completion of the candidate training. Retirements will be published as digital public notices at publicnotices.vic.gov.au

Nomination requirements in respect to candidate training

Under the Local Government Act 2020 and Local Government (Electoral) Regulations 2020, a candidate must have completed the mandatory training at the time they lodge their nomination.

The regulations require a candidate to declare they have completed the training and specify their date of completion. The certificate of completion is not required to be produced to the VEC.

It is an offence to nominate for election when you are not entitled to nominate. It is also an indictable offence to provide false or misleading information in any declaration or application related to the elections, including the nomination form.