NEW Grasslands Ward councillor Ken Capar is a highly relieved man after the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) ordered a recount of ballot papers because of the closeness of the election result for his position.
With only eight votes separating Cr Capar and unsuccessful candidate Peter Paul Portelli, the Victorian Electoral Commission decided on the recount.
The recount postponed last week’s scheduled swearing-in ceremony for Brimbank’s new councillors by 24 hours.
Ron Ritchie, VEC returning officer for Brimbank, said the result was declared at 2am last Wednesday. The swearing-in ceremony was held later in the day at 5pm.
“We decided to do a recount because there were so many informal votes,” Mr Ritchie told Star.
It is standard VEC practice to order a recount in close results, he said.
According to the VEC website, 21 per cent of the 24,869 votes cast in Grasslands Ward were declared informal and excluded from the final tally.
After the recount Cr Capar strengthened his position by six votes, eventually polling 4,909 votes with 4,895 for Mr Portelli.
“I got to the stage where I was saying, ‘Win, lose or draw, I just want to get it over and done with now’,” said Cr Capar, who took heart from the increase in the margin, indicating that any further recounts would probably have further widened the gap.
When the recount was completed, a happy and exhausted Cr Capar celebrated the result with friends and family by eating Turkish pizzas until 5am.
Cr Capar said the close result was due to 17 candidate names appearing on the ballot paper and a large number of different how-to-vote cards.
Election to Brimbank City Council was humbling and the close result was a good lesson in “being close to the community”, Cr Capar said.
Paying tribute to Mr Portelli, Cr Capar said his opponent had run a “very clean campaign”.
“I do describe him as a gentleman and ultimately someone has to win the election,” he said.
Mr Portelli told Star that he was proud of the result he achieved after running as an independent candidate.
“We had a clean campaign. I was by myself. I was the only genuine independent candidate,” Mr Portelli said.
A councillor for the former City of Sunshine from 1986 to 1989, Mr Portelli said he would use the election experience to strengthen links with residents in the hope of being elected in 2008.
