A City of Melbourne electoral system “held together by sticky tape” could throw up surprise victors when voters go to the polls in October.
Under this scenario, voters could support Koutoufides for Lord Mayor but see him miss out, while one-time federal Liberal MP turned fitness instructor Gladys Liu or property developer Zaim Ramani win a spot on council. If nominating as a councillor they nominate individually but can agree with other candidates to form a group and appear on the ballot paper together.Voters in the City of Melbourne will receive two separate ballot papers, one for the leadership team and one for the councillor team.
And property investors and business owners have yet another advantage: they don’t have to be Australian citizens to vote. Most of the owners lived overseas, “usually permanently and most commonly in China”, and some had “authorised their agent verbally or in writing to vote on their behalf”.The property owners generally “had limited English”, “were not interested in the election” and “communicated with their agents in Chinese through WeChat”.