The Western Australian Electoral Commission has released a statement about vote count delays in the 2023 City of Swan election.
Voting closed at 6pm on Saturday, October 21 in WA’s 2023 local government elections.
With the introduction of optional preferential voting and a popularly elected Mayor, the City of Swan vote count was expected to take longer than usual.
However, as of Tuesday afternoon, no results had been declared.
The WAEC, which the City appointed to run the election, confirmed it had started a recount on Tuesday after identifying “discrepancies” in the counting.
The WAEC released the following statement:
“The Western Australian Electoral Commissioner has directed ballots to be recounted for all wards and the mayoral election in the City of Swan after discrepancies were identified in the counting completed so far. This will ensure the final results are accurate. The Commission has provided additional resources to assist in completing the counts as quickly as possible. The Western Australian Electoral Commission regrets the inconvenience this situation has created for City of Swan electors and candidates, and expects the results to be finalised tomorrow.”