LNP wins Supreme Court case: Sheena Hewlett How to Vote cards illegal

Sheena Hewlett is standing as an independent in the seat, currently held by her brother Peter Dowling, who was disendorsed by the LNP in October.

Mrs Hewlett was expected to split the conservative vote.

The LNP sought an injunction from the Supreme Court early Saturday morning.

The court ruled her How to Vote cards were illegal as they were not registered before Wednesday.

Returning officer for the seat Robin Spann was not immediately available for comment.

Mrs Hewlett said she had been unfairly treated as the cards were approved by Electoral Commission Queensland on Friday.

She said it was the second lot of How To Vote cards she had to ditch despite being approved by the Electoral Commission Queensland.

Mrs Hewlett said she received an email from Returning Officer Robin Spann on January14 approving her first lot of cards.

"After I got that approval, I then got 33,000 cards printed only to be told a week later that they were not legal as they were not endorsed on both sides," she said.

"So I asked if I could just have the card printed on one side with the endorsement and that was approved on Friday, January 23.

"So I was really surprised when I got a phone call this morning at 10.30am to say there was an injunction on the cards - this time because they were lodged too late with the ECQ.

"I was told by the Returning Officer on Wednesday it was fine for them to be lodged on Friday."

Mrs Hewlett ditched more than 66,000 How to Vote cards which cost more than $3000.

Her brother, disendorsed member for the seat Peter Dowling slammed the incompetence of the Electoral Commission. 

"I think the LNP is exercising the law legitimately," Mr Dowling said.

"Any beef that I have is with the Electoral Commission which has made a huge stuff up.

"Firstly, they approved the How to Vote card, then they said they had found a mistake after approval.

"The secondary card was given approval on the revised format - which was identical to the first card except it was blank on one side.

"Now the LNP has challenged the veracity of that card which is fine and that has been upheld in the Supreme Court.

"The ECQ had one thing to do - which was to adjudicate the How to Vote cards - and they can't even get that right."

IN OTHER NEWS: The LNP lost a second Supreme Court challenge this morning over the use of purple placards telling voters to number each box at Mount Cotton.

The court ruled there was nothing illegal about the placards and campaigners were allowed to continue holding them at a booth at Mount Cotton.