One Hobsons Bay council candidate has been disqualified from running in the upcoming local election by the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC).
Paula Morgan, who was standing in the Laverton Ward, was among 16 candidates across the state deemed ineligible to run.
The VEC said that many of the disqualifications were the result of the Department of Government Services and Local Government Victoria cross checking the VEC’s candidate list with the register of local government candidate training.
As of September 30, 12 candidates had not completed the training as declared in their nominations.
It is a legal requirement for candidates to complete the training in the two years before election day to be eligible for nomination.
As part of the nomination process, candidates must declare they have completed the training and specify a completion date for the training. According to the VEC over 99 per cent of candidates successfully completed the training.
Before retiring each candidate, the VEC provided them with an opportunity to respond to the intention to retire them, as required by legislation.
As a result, some candidates were matched against the register of local government candidate training and not disqualified.
Another four candidates were retired just after the close of nominations after being found ineligible to run.
The current number of candidates standing state-wide is 2,215.
