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Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
The 151 ballots that the NSW Liberals say should overturn the Bradfield result
Gisele Kapterian, the unsuccessful Liberal candidate for Bradfield, says at least 56 ballot papers were wrongly rejected in the final recount of the ultra-marginal seat, while 95 were incorrectly allowed, prompting her to ask the High Court to overturn the result and declare her the winner. Kapterian last week ended weeks of speculation and lodged a petition with the High Court, which sits as the Court of Dispute Returns to hear election challenges, in a bid to be declared victorious in Bradfield instead of teal MP-elect Nicolette Boele. Boele, who will give her inaugural speech to federal parliament on July 28, won the once blue-ribbon Liberal seat after a recount of the northern Sydney seat in which she finished 26 votes ahead of Kapterian. In her petition, Kapterian says the Australian electoral officer (AEO) – who is the electoral commission's manager in each state – 'wrongly rejected at least 56 of the reserved ballot papers, where those ballot papers indicated a preference, by the voter, for the petitioner ahead of the first respondent'. Boele is listed as the first respondent. 'In each such case the ballot paper was not informal and should not have been rejected,' the petition says, referencing examples such as the officer 'not being satisfied that the figure 1 in one square was distinguishable from the figure in another square'. Kapterian has not seen the ballot papers, and her legal team will be provided with them once the AEC hands them to the court. However, her concerns were formed based on feedback and notes taken by scrutineers overseeing the final recount. The AEO was tasked with reviewing and making rulings on 795 reserved ballot papers. As well as the rejected ballots, Kapterian's petition says the AEO 'wrongly admitted at least 95 of the reserved ballot papers, where those ballot papers indicated a preference, by the voter, for the first respondent ahead of the petitioner'.
The Age
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Age
The 151 ballots that the NSW Liberals say should overturn the Bradfield result
The unsuccessful Liberal candidate for Bradfield, Gisele Kapterian, says at least 56 ballot papers were wrongly rejected in the final recount of the ultra-marginal seat, while 95 were incorrectly allowed, prompting her to ask the High Court to overturn the result and declare her the winner. Kapterian last week ended weeks of speculation and lodged a petition with the High Court, which sits as the Court of Dispute Returns to hear election challenges, in a bid to be declared victorious in Bradfield instead of teal MP-elect Nicolette Boele. Boele, who will give her inaugural speech to federal parliament on July 28, won the once blue-ribbon seat after a recount of the northern Sydney seat, which saw her finish 26 votes ahead of Kapterian. However in her petition, Kapterian says the Australian electoral officer (AEO) – who is the electoral commission's manager in each state – 'wrongly rejected at least 56 of the reserved ballot papers, where those ballot papers indicated a preference, by the voter, for the petitioner ahead of the first respondent'. Boele is listed as the first respondent. 'In each such case the ballot paper was not informal and should not have been rejected,' the petition says, referencing examples such as the officer 'not being satisfied that the figure 1 in one square was distinguishable from the figure in another square'. Kapterian has not seen the ballot papers, and her legal team will only be provided with them once the AEC hands them to the court. However, her concerns were formed based on feedback and notes taken by scrutineers who were overseeing the final recount. The AEO was tasked with reviewing and making rulings on 795 reserved ballot papers. As well as the rejected ballots, Kapterian's petition says the AEO 'wrongly admitted at least 95 of the reserved ballot papers, where those ballot papers indicated a preference, by the voter, for the first respondent ahead of the petitioner'.
Sky News AU
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Liberal Party launches legal bid in last minute effort to overturn narrow 26 vote Bradfield loss
Gisele Kapterian, the Liberal candidate for the once blue-ribbon seat of Bradfield on Sydney's Upper North Shore, will launch a legal case in a last-minute bid to challenge her close loss to Teal Independent Nicolette Boele in the federal election. Ms Boele in early June officially won the recount for the ultra-tight seat, defeating Ms Kapterian by just 26 votes. The nation's most marginal seat was previously called for each candidate at different points during the first count, with initial counting putting Ms Kapterian on 56,191 votes to Ms Boele's 56,183. After the recount, Ms Kapterian released a statement leaving the door open to a potential legal challenge of the results, saying she would 'carefully review the two counts". After months of speculation, Ms Kapterian announced on Monday night that she would appeal the election outcome in the once Liberal heartland seat. In a statement posted to Instagram on Monday, MS Kapterian said: 'After careful consideration of the two different results of the counts in Bradfield, we have taken the decision to go to the umpire.' 'Today's decision is taken to ensure the intentions of the votes of Bradfield were accurately reflected in the final count." Ms Kapterian reiterated the legal challenge was about ensuring the final outcome reflected the 'true wishes of voters' and outlined 'the original count resulted in an eight vote lead my way.' "While the second count resulted in a 26-vote lead for Ms Boele. Today's decision is taken to ensure the intentions of the voters of Bradfield are accurately reflected in the final count," she said. However, the Liberal candidate insisted she was not questioning the integrity of Australia's electoral processes and stated the additional scrutiny would give greater confidence to the wider system. "To be clear, there is no question regarding the integrity of our electoral system," she said. "In fact, this process has only served to reaffirm my faith in Australia's democratic institution. The challenge will be taken to the Court of Disputed Returns, with the Chief Justice of the High Court then nominating a High Court of Federal Court judge to adjudicate the case. "The legislation anticipates the need to look again at the ballot papers, given the highly subjective nature of decisions relating to interpreting voter intentions. In this instance, a final arbitrator does exactly what the AEC officials were doing throughout the count," Ms Kapterian's statement continued. She said the process would include interrogating a small number of ballot papers and determining whether a number is legible, such as 'whether a five is an eight'. 'We are requesting a targeted final examination of a small number of 'line-ball ballots' that were reserved and considered by the AEC officer during the counts,' she said. Senior Liberals are reportedly hoping that the judge presiding over the Court of Disputed Returns will rule several ballet papers invalid after examining them, consequently handing Ms Kapterian the seat. Top officials within the party are also fretting about the potential damage a public legal contest could do to the Liberal brand as it recovers from its thumping federal election defeat. If the result is overturned, the seat will go to a byelection, will recent polling showing Ms Boele holding a commanding lead over her Liberal counterpart. The NSW Liberal Party have agreed to compensate Ms Kapterian if her court bid is unsuccessful.
Perth Now
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Perth Now
Libs last ditch effort to win contested seat
The Liberal Party will launch a court challenge after losing the blue-ribbon seat of Bradfield at the May election to community independent Nicolette Boele. Ms Boele defeated the Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian by just 26 votes in a recount that wasn't completed till a month after the May 3 election. Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian will reportedly launch a legal challenge against the election result in the seat of Bradfield. NewsWire / Jeremy Piper Credit: News Corp Australia On Monday, the Australian Financial Review first reported the Liberal Party would launch the court challenge, asking a judge in the court of disputed returns to recount some of the ballots. 'After careful consideration of the two different results of the counts in Bradfield, we have taken the decision to go to the umpire,' Ms Kapterian said in a statement on Monday. 'We are requesting a targeted final examination of a small number of 'line ball' ballots that were reserved and considered by the Australian Electoral Officer during the counts.' Ms Kapterian said she was not questioning the integrity of the electoral system and believed the additional scrutiny would boost confidence in the system. 'Every vote counts,' she said. Independent candidate Nicolette Boele was declared the winner of the Bradfield after the AEC conducted a recount for the seat. NewsWire / Jeremy Piper Credit: News Corp Australia At the end of the recount conducted by the Australian Electoral Commission, Ms Boele had 50.01 per cent of the total vote, ahead of Ms Kapterian's 49.99 per cent. The news comes just a week before parliament sits for the first time since the election, with Ms Boele expected to take her seat on the cross benches. More to come
The Age
11-06-2025
- Politics
- The Age
Why the Liberals should accept defeat in Bradfield
It is hardly surprising that the battered and bruised Liberal Party does not want to surrender one of its last bastions of metropolitan Sydney without a fight. To give up on Bradfield, which has been in Liberal hands for 75 years, would be the final nail in the coffin for the party, which has watched its heartland turn teal or, in the case of John Howard's former seat of Bennelong, stay firmly red. The Liberals have an exceptional offering in Gisele Kapterian, who still has a frontbench spot on hold for her in the hope that she and not her teal nemesis Nicolette Boele ends up in Canberra. But for her sake and the party's, the Liberals should accept the loss in Bradfield, learn its lessons and focus on rebuilding the NSW division ahead of its next battle: the 2027 state election. The party's only hope of retaining Bradfield rests on petitioning the Court of Disputed Returns to overturn the result. The Liberals are seeking legal advice. The appeal of pursuing court action is obvious from the party's perspective. Kapterian won the first count, albeit by just eight votes, only for Boele to overtake her on the recount and to emerge victorious with a final lead of 26. Liberals who are agitating for a court challenge say it is a no-brainer because Kapterian won initially. But eight votes is far from a resounding win and the Australian Electoral Commission 's formal policy is to recount any result under 100. By the time the AEC wrapped up the final recount, most ballot papers in Bradfield had been counted seven times. The AEC, a well-established impartial and independent institution, followed due process but the final result was always going to disappoint someone. That is democracy. Mistakes can be made, which is why the AEC welcomes scrutineers for all candidates, but seeking to cast doubt on the electoral watchdog would reek of sour grapes. There would also be costs to the party in mounting a legal challenge, although friendly Liberal-aligned barristers would be likely to offer their services pro bono. Kapterian was one of the most successful fundraisers for the Liberals ahead of the May poll, but given that some of their federal campaign was debt-financed based on pre-election polling (which turned out to be vastly wrong), the party will not recoup the public funding it had anticipated. A court challenge would be a financial impost on a party that will struggle to fundraise after such a monumental election loss. Depleted coffers will not help their NSW colleagues in March 2027. Loading There is, of course, the argument that the Liberals have nothing to lose by throwing everything at retaining the seat. If the results were reversed, Boele, who devoted three years to campaigning as the shadow MP for Bradfield, would no doubt be considering the same. The worst-case scenario, as many Liberals see it, is the status quo. Boele remains the MP for Bradfield and Kapterian suffers a respectable defeat. So why not take a risk? There are other possible scenarios from a court challenge. The best, but also highly unlikely, would be that the result is overturned, and Kapterian is declared the winner. Even the most optimistic Liberals accept that will not happen. The second-best outcome would be for the election to be declared void, forcing Bradfield voters back to the polls. Kapterian would have several factors on her side. There is no Peter Dutton factor, which was a drag on her vote, and her name recognition is higher thanks to coverage of the never-ending count. But there are cons, too. Firstly, the voters of Bradfield would be rightly annoyed at being dragged back to the polls. Secondly, the Liberals' dirty laundry has been well and truly aired post-election.
