By Violet Li
As the Casey Council election draws to a close, Star News has analysed candidates’ how-to-vote cards in Casey South. And the following preferences among candidates have surfaced.
Correa Ward
In Correa Ward, Labor member Kanu Aggarwal preferenced Labor member Abdullah Neshat, while Abdullah Neshat preferenced independent Shegofa Naseri and put Kanu Aggarwal towards the bottom of his preferences.
Ms Aggarwal had hit out at Mr Neshat over the preferencing decision on Facebook, where she said he had used an exemption to mandatory preferencing among ALP members due to her membership being less than 24 months old.
Mr Neshat, who has received most of the higher preferences in the ward, said he had explained to the Labor party the reasons why he did not preference Ms Aggarwal. Other than that, he did not wish to make any further comments.
Independents Tracy Ryan and Gary Rowe preferenced each other. Independent Onkar Singh Sandhawalia said he did not make his preferences available on his how-to-vote card.
Kowan Ward
In Kowan Ward, Labor members Kasuni Mendis and Raj Nayak preferenced each other.
Independent Joby George said he met up with independents Shane Taylor and Bernard Brian Carr and decided to preference one another
Independent Jawad Erfani placed independent Gagan Bumrah in the second spot and Libertarian Christine Skrobo in the third.
Christine Skrobo did not make any publicly available preferences.
Bumrah had been contacted.
Mr Taylor has received most of the higher preferences in Kowan Ward on how-to-vote cards.
Cranbourne Gardens Ward
In Cranbourne Gardens Ward, independents Tamas Kapitany and Mary Beth Melton preferenced each other.
Michelle Crowther and Anthony Lake preferenced each other, according to their candidate leaflets.
Independent Blessing Nhliziyo said he did not want to influence voters on their decisions, so he did not give specific preferences on his how-to-vote card. Instead, he distributed randomised versions of number rankings. Jo Muir had been contacted for comment.
Quarters Ward
In Quarters Ward, Labor member Kuljeet Kaur Robinson preferenced Labor members Aftab Hussain and Jagdeep Singh Sukhija. Mr Hussain also preferenced Ms Robinson and Mr Sukhija.
Mr Sukhija was contacted for comment.
Independent Ian Wood and Freedom Party member Craig Baird preferenced each other. David Rolfe preferenced Ridvan Rasimi. Contact details for Mr Rasimi and Carolyn Eaves were unable to be found.
River Gum Ward
In River Gum Ward, independents Asher Coleman, Nazir Yousafi, and Lynette Pereira have received the best flow of preferences on how-to-vote cards. Mr Coleman and Mr Yousafi preferenced each other. They both placed Ms Pereira in the third spot.
Mr Coleman said the preferences were made due to shared values. Ms Pereira placed Mr Yousafi at number two and Mr Coleman at number three.
Labor member Garry Page said he was not doing any preferences for this election.
Liberal member Damien Rosario said he did not make any publicly available preferences. Freedom Party member Geoff Hansen preferenced Mr Rosario. Mr Rosario commented under one Facebook post that he was “pleasantly surprised to be Mr Hansen’s second preference given they hadn’t had any contact or discussion about it“.
Labor member Wayne Smith preferenced Ms Pereira. Ms Pereira said she never talked with Mr Smith and she found the second preference “surprising”, given the history between them. Nor was there a deal between her, Coleman and Yousafi, she said.
According to Ms Pereira, preferences only had an impact if they were made public to voters, which Ms Pereira said she had done.
Ms Pereira said she based her decision on the competency of other candidates.
Mr Smith had been contacted.
Tooradin Ward
In Tooradin Ward, Labor members Ravneet Singh, Andrew Gai, and Ali Yaghobi preferenced one another. Independents Anthony Tassone and Kuldeep Kaur preferenced each other.
Independent Jennifer Dizon preferenced Brenton Kelly. Mr Kelly could not be contacted.
Mr Singh has received most of the higher preferences on how-to-vote cards.
