By Cam Lucadou-Wells
At least three new faces will be elected from a bumper field of 67 candidates at the close of nominations for the Greater Dandenong Council poll.
Only eight incumbents are contesting in the 11 single-member wards – with none of the sitting councillors going head-to-head.
Candidate numbers are up by more than 50 per cent from the 43 who contested the 2016 election.
The three seats without sitting councillors are Keysborough South (a massive field of 11 candidates), Springvale Central (four) and Yarraman (eight).
In order of the ballot, Keysborough South comprises Rhonda Garad, My Dung Phung, Jessica Halliday, Sandra Seng, Ramy El-Sukkari, Stephen Fanous, Thineng Meng, Gam Le, Jeruisha Williams, Vivekkumar Desai and Moonsamy Naidoo.
The Springvale Central ballot lists Richard Lim, Thi Gam Tran, Thi Thich Huynh and 2016 candidate Minh Van Tran.
Yarraman Ward will be a contest between Jonathan Ichim, Ahmed Shukri, Cam Dang, Gul Rahman Taniwal, Jet Saliu, Eden Foster, Ravi Shankar and Hengshan Chen.
The Cleeland Ward field is Dalibor Saula, incumbent councillor Angela Long, Solange Ardiles, Lidia Paul, Hayat Rahimi, Reza Andesha and Madhu Warnakulasuriya.
Dandenong North features Gabrielle Maes, Bob Milkovic and sitting councillor Zaynoun Melhem.
Dandenong Ward is a field of four: mayor Jim Memeti, Liaqat Khan, Naser Fekrat and ex-councillor Geraldine Gonsalvez.
In Keysborough Ward, Irfan Syed, Reinaldo Pincheira, sitting councillor Tim Dark, Phillip Danh, Neelima Perika, Sam Afra, Eugene Gvozdenko, Maria Palmer, Kun Sok and Sheree Samy are contesting.
Noble Park North Ward has Pradeep Hewavitharana, Silvana McMahon, Nizar Ashkar, Lana Formoso, Brad Woodford and incumbent Maria Sampey.
In Noble Park Ward, former councillor Sue Walton – who withdrew her nomination from Cleeland Ward – Alexander Forbes, Matt Pond, Yasmin Jugo and sitting councillor Sophie Tan are on the ticket.
Sitting councillor Peter Brown was dramatically scratched from nominating for Noble Park by the Victorian Electoral Commission on 21 September.
His bid to contest his ineligibility failed in the Supreme Court of Victoria minutes before nominations closed at noon on 22 September.
Springvale North Ward is a three-way race between incumbent councillor Sean O’Reilly, Ricardo Buensucesco and Angela Holl.
Springvale South Ward features Leang Vuorch Kong, William PJ Billings, sitting councillor Loi Truong, Suresh Shanmugam, Thay Horn Yim and Giorgio Migliaccio.
