ACT Electoral Commissioner, Damian Cantwell has announced that Deepak Raj Gupta (pictured) is to replace Meegan Fitzharris in the ACT Legislative Assembly, following Ms Fitzharris’s resignation which became official on 8 July.
Mr Cantwell said the names of the candidates who applied to contest the vacancy were David Pollard (ungrouped); Deepak Raj Gupta (ACT Labor); Justin States (Canberra Liberals); Paul Gabriel (Sustainable Australia); Tim Bohm (Like Canberra – deregistered) and Veronica Wensing (The Greens).
“The ACT Labor candidate for Yerrabi, Mr Gupta, received a majority of preferences after Ms Fitzharris’ votes were distributed by computer count,” Mr Cantwell said.
“The computer count was completed in a few minutes. By contrast, the last time a manual count was undertaken to fill a casual vacancy in the Assembly — the 2001 recount following the resignation of Mrs Kate Carnell — the count took two days to complete.”
Mr Gupta was officially declared elected to the ACT Legislative Assembly on Tuesday (23 July).
He is a leading member of Canberra’s Indian community who quit his 17-year career in the Federal Department of Defence only a few days before Ms Fitzharris’ resignation, planning to take some time for reflection and a career change after the recent death of both parents.
“I was thinking to just take time for myself and maybe their blessing must have come through now,” Mr Gupta said.
“If there’s a life after death they must be looking down and they must be feeling proud,” he said.
Full details of the Electoral Commission’s countback are available on the Commission’s website at this PS News link.
