Shire's non-voters to be punished

THERE is a rude shock coming in the mail for more than 2000 Banana Shire residents.

During the April Banana Shire election 2224 enrolled voters either failed or refused to vote in the mayoral ballot - that's 24% of the total number of voters.

Electoral Commission Queensland told the Central Telegraph those who did not vote would be punished.

An ECQ representative said the penalty for failing to vote was a $100 fine, which would be reduced to $50 for prompt payment.

If the fines are enforced, ECQ could collect more than $220,000 from the Banana Shire.

The representative said ECQ was required to impose a fine in all cases where the elector did not have a reasonable excuse for not voting.

The number of people who failed to vote at the election was high and in some divisions within Banana Shire, the total number of non-voters was higher than the votes received by the winning candidate.

In Division 1 (Biloela) 430 people failed to vote. Former Mayor John Hooper led the poll in this division with 401 votes, while Mayor-elect Ron Carige collected 289.

The other Biloela-based electorate, Division 2, was headed by Hooper with 552 votes, just ahead of the total number of non-voters 509. Mr Carige polled 396 votes.

Division 5 (Moura, Banana) saw Mr Carige on top of the poll with 490 votes, 67 votes ahead of the number of people in that division that did not vote.

ECQ said the disclosure returns for candidates at the 2012 Local Government Elections must be lodged with the electoral commission within 15 weeks of polling day, August 13.