Qld: Queensland MP admits family on wrong electoral roll
BRISBANE, Feb 10 AAP - Queensland federal Liberal MP Alex Somlyay has admitted twofamily members were enrolled to vote at a house in which they never lived.
The Liberal politician, who is one of several candidates seeking the ParliamentarySpeaker's job in Canberra, confirmed his wife and son were enrolled at a Coolum houseon the Sunshine Coast in 1998, just weeks before a federal election.
A redistribution before the poll had put the family's Maroochydore home outside hiselectorate of Fairfax.
However, the Coolum home, owned by his personal assistant Toni Milne, was still in Fairfax.
Mr Somlyay, who has represented Fairfax since 1990, acknowledged in the Sunday Mailtoday that months after he was re-elected, the family re-enrolled at Maroochydore wherethey had lived all along.
He said the false enrolment was easily explained and that he was the victim of a smear campaign.
Mr Somlyay said the Coolum house was under contract to be purchased by himself whenhis family were enrolled there.
"I'd been trying for months to buy a house," Mr Somlyay told the Sunday Mail.
"Then Toni's house came up. We signed a contract and I had the keys. When I didn'tget reappointed (to Cabinet) Toni came back and said, `I want my house back'. We handedthe keys back and that was that."
His admission follows a probe into false electoral enrolments in Queensland's LaborParty last year, which forced the resignation of several key MPs, including Deputy PremierJim Elder.
AAP nt/jmd
KEYWORD: SOMLYAY
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