Dubbo Regional Council candidates introduce polling booth 'pact'

The group of 35 candidates that will contest the Dubbo Regional Council elections on December 4 have each agreed on introducing new guidelines to ensure safety among the community.

In a statement sent to media, all candidates have agreed and "made a pact" that they would not have candidates, representatives or volunteers present within 100 metres of the entrance to the grounds of a polling booth.

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The proactive decision is despite the NSW Electoral Commission's document which specifies that candidates and candidate workers are "entitled to stand from six metres to the entrance to a voting centre provided they are not handing out electoral material".

"All candidates believe that if candidates, volunteers and voters do gather together at a polling booth, there is a real risk of the election creating a COVID-19 super-spreading incident," the release stated.

The same guidelines from the NSW Electoral Commission note that no electoral material is to be handed out of left out for collection, within 100 metres of the entrance to a voting centre.

The candidates standing for election believe this would create the opportunity for representatives to hand out papers near some polling booths and not others.

Therefore the candidates have further agreed to not hand out any electoral material within 100 metres of the entrance to the grounds of a polling centre.

"All 35 candidates in all five wards have agreed to this pact and believe this to be a clear demonstration of leadership by being the first, and at this stage the only, Local Government Area in the state to create their own candidate guidelines that are over and above those imposed by the NSW Electoral Commission," the statement read.

This promise to the community covers both the pre-polling period, which starts on November 22 and polling day on Saturday, December 4.

Candidates behind the initiative include:

Peter Allen, Christopher Bailey, Ann Barnard, Josh Black, Della Burns, Lewis Burns, Mick Catelotti, Shibli Chowdhury, Mathew Dickerson, Jeremy Ellis, Nathan Ellis, Vicki Etheridge, Rod Fardell, Lizzy George, Jess Gough, Greg Hough, Richard Ivey, Anne Jones, Joe Knagge, Damien Mahon, Greg Matthews, Karina McLachlain, Grahame Miller, Greg Mohr, Tatum Moore, Merrilyn Mulcahy, Kevin Parker, Ana Pateman, Ben Shields, Mathew Smith, Mikaela Solomons, Helen Swan, Trina Thornbury, Pamella Wells, Matthew Wright.

Residents can check where they can vote on the council website.

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