Perth Voice Interactive

VINCENT council candidate Mark Rossi has been spotted pulling down a poster of rival candidate Dan Loden late at night.

He was spotted by deputy mayor Ros Harley and she says she told him, “that is not the way to win an election, you can’t be pulling election material down.

“He did deny doing it, and I said I just watched you doing it. He denied it, then apologised for doing it.”

Mr Rossi told the Voice Mr Loden was getting an unfair advantage by putting posters up in areas forbidden by the council’s election rules. He said he reported several signs to council staff and claims to have been told he was given the ok to remove them on the basis they were litter.

Council staff have denied giving him that advice.

“It’s no secret that I reported the posters to the City of Vincent and returning officer. I only removed one poster off the light pole because it was about to fall off. Opportunistic event,” Mr Rossi said.

“Ros Harley saw me remove the poster (I have nothing to hide) … I tried to tell her that I had spoken to the rangers and returning officer.

“One regret—I don’t like dirty politics, negativity and especially feeding the trolls, because this has gone out to the media through no choice of [mine], it may reflect badly on the other candidate with the posters. I wanted to keep it confidential and don’t play like that. I have broken no law, I have done nothing wrong, I spoke to many Vincent admin staff about this.”

Mr Rossi says all posters were up most of the weekend and he’d emailed the Vincent CEO to report two other locations. We’ve asked the electoral commission if posters are allowed on poles.

by DAVID BELL