The Liberal candidate in the federal Sydney seat of Bradfield has abandoned her court action challenging the election result.<\/p>\n
Gisele Kapterian had been seeking an adjudication from the Court of Disputed Returns, over the validity of 151 ballot papers.<\/p>\n
However, she now said she was satisfied the correct outcome was declared.<\/p>\n
“After a final review of the ballot papers following the two different results in Bradfield, I am satisfied that, overall, the correct outcome has been declared,” she shared in a social media post on Thursday.<\/p>\n
“Accordingly, we have taken the decision to no longer press the petition for a final review by the Court of Disputed Returns.”<\/p>\n
The original count gave Ms Kapterian an eight-vote lead.<\/p>\n
Following a second count, the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) declared the north shore seat in favour of independent MP Nicolette Boele with a margin of 26 votes.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Teal independent Ms Boele won the historically blue-ribbon seat. (AAP: Dean Lewins)<\/p>\n
Ms Boele welcomed the decision in a statement on Thursday and said she would “continue to serve with integrity, care, and dedication”.<\/p>\n
“Being part of this process has given me an even greater appreciation for the safeguards we have in place, and the value of every single vote,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“While we watch checks and balances erode in other countries, our electoral and judicial processes are something we can genuinely celebrate here at home.”<\/p>\n
Kapterian ‘disappointed to miss out’<\/p>\n
When she first challenged the result, Ms Kapterian insisted she was not questioning the integrity of the electoral system.<\/p>\n
However, she said she wanted an adjudication on a number of “line ball” ballots which involved “highly subjective” decisions about voter intentions.<\/p>\n
“[AEC officials] look at a ballot paper to determine matters like whether a five is an eight etc,” she said.<\/p>\n
A court hearing was scheduled for next week, however, Ms Kapterian has since decided to accept the result.<\/p>\n
“In other words, after asking the on-field decision to go to the video umpire, we had the opportunity to review the play and can now be satisfied the right call was made overall.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Gisele Kapterian had been seeking an adjudication from the Court of Disputed Returns. (ABC News: Liam Patrick)<\/p>\n
Electoral Commissioner Jeff Pope said the outcome meant Australians could be confident the commission left “no stone unturned”.<\/p>\n
“I’d like to highlight in particular the work of the AEC’s staff supervising the count, the recount, and the Court of Disputed Returns challenge for Bradfield,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Their hard work, and their commitment to election integrity has met the very high standards that Australians rightly expect from the AEC at every federal election.”<\/p>\n
Ms Kapterian said she was “disappointed to miss out on contributing from inside the party room”.<\/p>\n
She then wished Ms Boele all the best in her role representing Bradfield.<\/p>\n
“And I thank the people of Bradfield for this incredible opportunity to have spoken with so many of you, to hear your ideas, your stories, and what matter most to you.”<\/p>\n
Ms Boele has already taken her seat in the federal parliament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Liberal candidate in the federal Sydney seat of Bradfield has abandoned her court action challenging the election…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51326,109734,68896,109735,109736,43,10940,44,109737,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-167235","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-australian-electoral-commission","9":"tag-bradfield","10":"tag-federal-election","11":"tag-federal-seat","12":"tag-gisele-kapterian","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-liberal-party","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-nicolette-boele","17":"tag-top-news","18":"tag-top-stories","19":"tag-topnews","20":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}