By Charlene Macaulay
Wyndham council no longer has a quorum for this year’s mayoral election, with a sixth councillor applying for leave over that period.
Intaj Khan has applied to take leave between November 13-23, meaning the council will not have the majority of its 11 councillors present for the vote to go ahead.
Councillors Tony Hooper (state election candidate), Walter Villagonzalo (state election candidate), Aaron An (state election candidate), Josh Gilligan (campaigning for Labor party) and Heather Marcus (knee operation) will also be on leave and unable to vote at the November 21 mayoral election.
Cr Khan said he was taking time off to visit family overseas, adding that the trip had been “already planned”.
While acknowledging that his leave was the “deciding factor” for the mayoral election, he insisted it had nothing to do with forcing a change of date.
“What can you do? If people don’t believe [my reasons], they’ll have to watch my Facebook page when I’m posting that I’m overseas,” he said.
“That’s the reason why we were saying before, let’s postpone the date.
“Moving it will not cause any issues at all. It’s better to have all the councillors democratically exercising their rights to elect the right people for the City of Wyndham.
“This will be absolutely a much more better outcome for every ratepayer in Wyndham.”
This follows a failed motion by councillor Josh Gilligan last month to postpone the mayoral election so councillors contesting the state election can participate.
Cr Gilligan, who is taking leave to campaign on behalf of the Labor Party for the state election, also insisted his leave was not a move to force a change of date, but said in light of the number of councillors taking time off over the same period he believes his motion was warranted.
Wyndham council said it would not comment on the matter until the leave applied for by councillors Khan, Villagonzalo and An is officially received and endorsed at next Tuesday’s ordinary council meeting.
