The Douglas Shire is heading for an important local government election on Saturday 28 March and a strong contingency of voices have put their hands up to represent the Douglas Shire.

Newsport is committed to bringing its readership a high standard of news and providing a voice for the community that is fair, accurate and balanced in accordance with our publishing guidelines.

In the lead up to the election community opinions will vary over who may best lead the Shire. In this process, Newsport will remain neutral and not display a political bias.

Newsport follows the same obligations as any media organisation with regard to election advertising.

We encourage all readers to provide fair commentary and respect each and every one of the candidate’s ideas. All comments submitted to the Newsport website via the Disqus commenting system are subject to comment guidelines.

Over the past few months, Newsport has been in contact with all candidates and has provided them with the same opportunity to present their platform and have their say on issues that affect the Shire.

Launch articles for each of the election candidates can be found here.

In the lead up to polling day, Newsport will continue to present the most up to date election news from both sides, offering both mayoral and councillor candidates the opportunity to express their opinions on matters when and should the need arise.

If a candidate chooses not to make a comment for publishing to the Newsport readership, Newsport will represent this with the following;

Candidate (……) was contacted for comment but was unavailable.

Should a candidate wish to address the Newsport readership directly they are invited to write a letter to the editor.

In the lead up 28 March we will also be holding two Newsport preferred Mayoral polls allowing the readership to gauge where the Shire stands at each time.

We take this time to congratulate all of the candidates for showing their personal commitment to the region and look forward to working with all the successful candidates over the next 4 years.

Candidate nominations officially closed today, the Douglas Shire has a choice between two Mayors and nine Councillors.

Mayoral candidates:

• Julia Leu
• Michael Kerr

Councillor candidates:

• Abigail Noli
• Bruce Clarke
• Kym Rowley
• Lisa Scomazzon
• Nataile Johnson
• Peter Mckeown
• Roy Zammataro
• Steve Cruickshank
• Terry Melchert

Current Councillor, David Carey, has not nominated to run again at this election.