WITH early voting now well underway, Saturday’s state election will see the culmination of months of campaigning by candidates and their supporters.
The photo “opportunite” were sometimes colourful, but always staged. The bid for votes by those seeking election to the Mornington Peninsula’s three state seats could easily be summed with: they seek them here, they seek them there, they seek them anywhere. A vote is a vote and they all count.
Small halls were always good for a gathering of, hopefully, the faithful and those that could be persuaded.
Visits to eroded beaches or rotting piers provided context for either what candidates could do about it or what was already being done.
Being seen with young people well below the voting age was also on the list, as was posing with supporters in front of a business sign. An election’s version of product placement in a movie.
But perhaps the most eye catching were the performances by Extinction Rebellion, an international group that uses “non violent civil disobedience” to bring attention to the climate crisis.
None of the 27 candidates on the peninsula have openly admitted to being members of Extinction Rebellion, but most expressed concern at the effects of climate change.
First published in the Mornington News – 22 November 2022
