Cr An to contest Tarneit

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, Cr An, who lives in Williams Landing, said he believed the local MP should live locally and have an understanding of the “pain that our residents are experiencing every day”.

Fellow Wyndham councillor Tony Hooper announced 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.

This means six 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), Heather Marcus (knee operation) and Intaj Khan also on leave and unable to vote for the new mayor.

The council will not have enough numbers to hold the mayoral election.

Charlene Macaulay