Letter To The Editor of the Armadale Examiner, 07 August 2007

The full text of the Letter to the Editor of the Armadale Examiner, sent on 07 August 2007, is below.

.............................................

It is interesting how briefly council policies last, or how it is
that a mayor does not speak for a council, or how misleading are
statements made on behalf of the council, and how short people's
memories are, regarding elections and politics.

I refer to recent statements by the mayor of the Armadale City
Council, opposing the imposition of preferential voting in local
government elections, due to the prospect of factional or party
politics in local government elections, to which the council, as
supposedly represented by the mayor, purportedly objects.

Obviously, his statements are not supported by either the deputy
mayor, or by the members of the city council.

I refer to a flyer that was distributed by the Examiner, in the
issue dated 2 August, that was an electioneering document by the
deputy mayor for this year's local government elections, endorsed
by the two sitting councillors for the Lake Ward, which is the
ward that the deputy mayor intends to take, using factional
politics to shut out any candidates who might not agree with
actions or policies of the existing council, and to keep the ward
under the control of the existing faction that perhaps controls
the council.

Clearly, the intent is that the interests of the sitting
councillors, are to be represented, in factional, or party, electioneering,
rather than the interests of the electors of the ward.

This previously happened, when the current system of local
government elections was implemented, when the "first past the
post" voting system was implemented, supposedly to prevent ticket
voting, but in that election, ticket voting was used to
manipulate the polls, to apply party politics to the election.

Electors of the previous Forrest Ward, may (or, may not) remember
the first election under the current voting system, when one of
the existing Lake Ward Councillors, and a previous mayor of
Armadale, stood on a party ticket, with how to vote cards showing
the two candidates on a combined ticket, to use the standing of
the previous mayor, to shut out candidates other than him and his
campaign partner.

Now, we have similar electioneering, with the deputy mayor
switching to the Lake Ward, endorsed by the two sitting
councillors for the ward, to shut out anyone who seeks to
represent the interests of the ward, rather than the interests of
the members of the current city council.

So, party politics is alive and well in the Armadale City
Council, and has so been for at least the last ten years, with
city councillors closing ranks to shut out anyone who wants to
represent the interests of the ward, rather than the interests of
city councillors, despite statements reportedly having been made
by the mayor, as spokesman for the council, objecting to the
possibility of factional or party politics in local government,
through the imposition of preferential voting in local government
elections.

.............................................

I can be contacted by email by clicking on the link at Bret