The final stretch of the federal election campaign has been marred by a string of ugly incidents forcing Australian Electoral Commissioner (AEC) Jeff Pope to speak publicly on the matter.
“Very vast majority of polling centres and party workers and candidates absolutely doing the right thing,” he told ABC Radio.
He said these events are concentrated in particular seats and voting centres, where organisers have had “to call police.”
Pope revealed inner city Melbourne and Sydney’s easternmost electorate of Wentworth were hotspots.
Recently footage emerged showing a volunteer for Clive Palmer’s Trumpet of Patriots party being assaulted in the south-eastern suburb of Pakenham.
Footage posted by online commentator Rukshan Fernando and later shared by Senator Ralph Babet showed a man wearing a bicycle helmet approaching the volunteer and appearing to knee and punch him while he was handing out how-to-vote cards.
This followed an earlier incident in the Hunter region, NSW, where campaign signs for One Nation were cut and torn apart. Senator Pauline Hanson shared footage of the incident online.
In parallel, the Greens have also reported a wave of attacks on their election material.“Incredibly disappointed by some of that behaviour, and we‘ll continue to call the police and we’ll continue to pull whatever levers we possibly can to try and make this the best voting experience for the voter,” Pope said.
