STRATFORD MAYORALTY.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 19 May 1933, Page 5

STRATFORD MAYORALTY.

PETITION TO UPSET POLL. VARIOUS IRREGULARITIES ALLEGED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) STRATFORD,' Friday. A petition has been lodged by 12 electors of the Stratford Borough, asking that the recent mayoral election be declared void, and that the Mayor (Mr J. W. McMillan) be declared not elected. The grounds alleged are as follows: That, a voting paper wais missing. That unauthorised people were present at the polling place after the declaration of the poll. That a voting paper was issued without the roll number being inserted on the counterfoil. That an alleged statement by Mr McMillan, ■ that he would reduce his honorarium and recommend that the saving of £25 be donated to the unemployed, was illegal and improper. , Objection is also taken to a circular issued by the (secretary of Mr McMillan’s committee. It is also alleged that the election of Mr McMillan was not determined by lot in accordance with the Act. At the mayoral poll, the voting for Mr McMillan and Mr Percy Thompson was equal. In such an event the Returning Officer is called upon to exercise his casting vote, and in this ease he chose the candidate for whom he should rote by tossing a coin. Since taking office, Mr McMillan has also used a casting vote, by means of which he enabled a resolution to pass which js intended to effect sweeping econoguies in the Borough administration, including the retrenchment of several executive officers.