The electoral commission of South Australia has come under intense pressure, following the discovery of ballot papers that have been left uncounted in another two seats.
This comes a week after it was revealed that the electoral commission had made another mistake by failing to count some ballot papers in the previous election held in March this year.
According to a report, ballot papers from the elections in the state’s lower house seats of Enfield and Newland were found uncounted, after polling was conducted in March this year. The two seats are considered safe Labor seats.
Leah McLay, the acting Electoral Commissioner, offered an apology admitting that their performance was far below the standard that can be expected of the electoral commission.
This is the latest development after the last week, which saw the emergence of much more significant issues when 81 uncaptured ballots surfaced in the closely fought seat of Narungga.
One Nation’s candidate Chantelle Thomas defeated the candidate of the Liberal Party, Tania Stock in the seat of Narungga region by winning the seat with a lead of only 58 votes.
During the same process, it came to light that about 642 votes of the other constituency Stuart also remained uncaptured but without changing anything in its result.
These instances have led to criticism from both sides of the political divide.
For the party that lost this seat by one vote but later regained it due to the uncaptured ballots (One Nation), an independent parliamentary inquiry regarding the election conduct needs to be done.
According to Thomas, surrounded by other elected One Nation South Australians when this situation first came up, the whole experience had been disappointing for her community and put a question on the credibility of South Australia’s electoral system.
An investigation into the issue had already been conducted internally, and she promised a more extensive investigation into all the aspects of the incident.
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There will also be an external and independent review of the 2026 elections which, according to McLay, will look at some other problems such as technological failure, long waiting times at polling centers and payments of election day workers among other things.
March saw Labor win by a huge margin, with Premier Peter Malinauskas being returned to power for his second term.
The party won 34 out of 47 lower house seats, leaving the Liberals with five seats only.
One Nation secured four seats, which was a milestone for the party in South Australia. However, this vote recount matter has put a cloud over the election result since it was an overwhelming victory for one of the parties.
