Costigan calls election campaign a ‘disgrace’

THE LNP’s Jason Costigan has called the weekend’s election campaign “a disgrace”, saying he and his supporters were “harassed”.

Mr Costigan claims there was an incident outside the Cannonvale Returning Office on Friday night to which he believes the police were called.

Furthermore he says on Sunday night, a Greens supporter accused him of being at the Returning Office without Greens scrutineers.

The verbal battle spread to social media but most of the relevant posts have now been taken down.

Speaking this week, Mr Costigan referred to the Greens supporter as a “pot plant” and said “they have no credibility and if I was the Greens candidate I’d be embarrassed”.

He also flatly denied any wrong-doing on his part.

“The Returning Officer confirmed what I thought was the case – I can appoint myself as a scrutineer and that’s a fact – it was all above board,” he said. “The fact is we had our people verballed, harassed – the bully boy tactics of the Labor Party, their union mates and the Greens was absolutely disgraceful in some parts of the electorate and it needs to be said.”

Greens candidate Tony Fontes responded to Mr Costgian’s accusations by saying he was proud to have run as a Green and proud of the people who supported him.

“And if anybody has a problem regarding any of the [local] greens, come and see me personally – don’t just stick it on Facebook and hide behind social media,” he said.

Meanwhile Bronwyn Taha (ALP), said Mr Costigan was being “hypocritical”.

“People have voted and he’s just trying to grasp at things,” she said. Returning Officer for the Whitsundays Leanne Lloyd, said any enquiries regarding the election process should be made to the Electoral Commission of Queensland (ECQ) direct.