By Corey Everitt
Personal attacks online and in person, candidates have reported this year’s election has ‘changed a lot’ since the previous campaigns and have called for a little ‘respect’ as this year’s election is on its home stretch.
Council elections are not exempt from scabbles, usually between candidates themselves vying for their respective seats.
However, candidates have claimed an increase in hostilities outside of the usual jibes of their opponents.
In Henty Ward, the most contested ward this election, Carol Ryan is attempting to renew her council tenure with a third consecutive term, she states this has been the ‘fiercest election’ yet.
“This is getting too personal, it’s happening to us all,” she said.
“We are just running a campaign and we are entitled to run a campaign and feel safe and comfortable in what we are doing.”
Ryan has reported online comments telling her to harm herself and others involving members of her family in personal remarks.
In public, she reported individuals confronting her while letterboxing, taking out her campaign materials from residents’ mail. She reported others ripping up her campaign signs.
Fellow Henty Ward candidate, Cecilia Mphande, took to facebook to also report her signs being targeted.
Candidate Shoheli Sunjida reported similar acts since the first week of the election campaign, at the time Star News reported a spate of her corflutes being taken from the front yards of her supporters which she says has not abated in the weeks since.
As an immigrant from Bangladesh, she also has faced racialised remarks. One commenter suggested she was ‘interfering’ with Australia’s political system and should rather ‘go back to the country’ she ‘abandoned’.
Sunjida has lived in Australia for over 20 years and has been an Australian citizen for 17 years.
Her son, who was born in Australia, has helped her in letterboxing and she said he faced similar hostilities.
“I can’t explain how angry I feel, it’s an issue every migrant family faces,” Sunjida said.
“Some people think that we are just coming from war-torn countries, they don’t know how hard the migrant community works.”
Some residents have also pointed out the mailing address she listed for her candidacy, she doesn’t have a P.O. box and last election she ran in 2020 she put her home address.
She put down one of her properties in Officer which is currently a vacant lot. Though she admits it is an unfortunate mistake to not have a direct mailing address, she did so to avoid having her home targeted.
Henty Ward has seen heightened activity as it holds the largest list of candidates, six of the nine wards have no more than two candidates nominated.
The 2024 council election has 23 people nominated across Cardinia, which is almost half the number of candidates who were nominated in the 2020 election.
