Scott retains seat on council

MURRAY Scott was the only Capel shire councillor to be re-elected in the Local Government Election at the weekend, with three new faces to join the Capel Shire Council.

Mr Scott was also re-elected as the Capel Shire Council president for the next two years after being nominated unopposed at Monday night’s special council meeting.

Elgin farmer Douglas Kitchen, 22, topped the voting with 1812 votes, followed by Gelorup resident Michael Southwell (1759), Dalyellup resident Debbie Radisich (1638), who became the second woman on the council, and Cr Murray Scott (1614).

Voters decided it was time for a change when previous councillors Brian Smith and Greg Norton, who had been on the council for a number of years, failed to win re-election.

Mr Norton had the least amount of votes (1123), while Mr Smith (1258) came in sixth spot.

The other two unsuccessful candidates were Norm Hoskins (1263) and Brian Hastie (1228).

Mr Kitchen said he was keen to get to work with existing and new councillors after receiving the landslide of support. “I was ecstatic, I definitely didn’t expect it,” he said.

“I was sad to see some of those councillors who had been there for years lose their seat but that’s what happens sometimes.”

Informal votes identified during the count totalled 14, compared to 13 in 2015.

Chief executive officer Paul Sheedy said he was pleased to see a four per cent increase in the number of ballot papers returned this year, rising from 27 per cent in 2015 to 33 per cent this election.

Mr Sheedy was disappointed that of the 177 voting packages rejected by the Electoral Commission in Perth, 133 were rejected because electors either failed to sign the declaration or removed the bar code section that allows the Electoral Commission to verify the elector’s eligibility on the roll.