By Charlene Macaulay
A third Wyndham councillor has officially thrown his hat in the ring for this year’s state election.
Aaron An, who was elected to his first term at Wyndham council for Harrison ward in 2016, will contest the seat of Tarneit as an independent candidate against Labor’s Sarah Connolly, the Liberals’ Glenn Goodfellow, the Greens’ Beck Sheffield-Brotherton and independent candidate Arnav Sati.
In a post on his Facebook page this morning, Cr An, who is a Williams Landing resident, said he believed the local MP should live locally and have an understanding of the “pain that our residents are experiencing every day”.
“Many key issues our community is facing are state government’s responsibilities: schools, public transport, parking around train stations, bus services, safety,” he wrote.
“Just as many residents I spoke to complained, we have been fed up with the situation and we need a true and strong local voice to push and push and push for our local needs.”
Fellow Wyndham councillor Tony Hooper has previously announced that he would run as an independent candidate for the state seat of Altona, and deputy mayor Walter Villagonzalo announced he was contesting a Western Metropolitan Region upper house seat for the Democratic Labour Party.
Cr An said he has applied for a leave of absence from the council during the campaign period, in accordance with Municipal Association of Victoria guidelines.
This means five councillors will now miss the November 21 mayoral election, with councillors Tony Hooper (state election candidate), Walter Villagonzalo (state election candidate), Josh Gilligan (campaigning for Labor party) and Heather Marcus (knee operation) also on leave and unable to vote for the new mayor.
If one more councillor takes leave over the same period, the council will not have enough numbers to hold the mayoral election.
