An aggrieved United Australia Party candidate has unleashed on his experience of running for the party, disclosing his plans to sue for the cost of campaign materials if the party refuses to reimburse him.
Jamal Daoud, who ran for Clive Palmer's UAP in the inner-west Sydney seat of Reid, shared the news on social media last week.
Mr Daoud told The Feed he joined the party instilled with the hope he would be able to push for greater freedoms in Australia, dismayed by lockdowns and vaccine mandates.
“We discovered that this is not a party. There is no singular branch. There is no single committee in the party, we don't know who the executives (are). We don't know who's making the decisions,” Mr Daoud told The Feed.
Mr Daoud said “mismanagement” is to blame for his out-of-pocket spend of $6200 on campaign materials including corflutes, posters, and leaflets.
With the party only managing to secure one seat in Victoria's Senate, Mr Daoud said the UAP "wasted millions" on a big "mainstream media" campaign that failed to target particular electorates.
In Reid, he secured just 2.58 per cent of the vote, with Labor’s Sally Sitou winning the seat from the Liberal party's Fiona Martin. The marginal seat has only ever been held by a Liberal or Labor minister.
“The madness here is the party lost around $100 million and what we are asking for is (about) $6,000… the court case will be more,” he said.
Jamal Daoud is looking to recoup the sum he claims to have lost during the campaign. Credit: Jamal Daoud Go Fund Me page
A crowdfunding page was launched by Mr Daoud on 20 June to help meet his costs after the party asked him to foot some, "if not most" of the bill as the printing was not approved, he said.
The UAP’s only successful candidate, Victorian Senator Ralph Babet, who won the sixth and final seat for the state, said he was happy with the support he received from the party.
“I and all candidates that I have spoken to are very happy with the support we have received from the UAP head office team,” he told The Feed in a statement.
“Throughout the entire election campaign, they were courteous, accommodating and helpful. They provided us with funding and paid for everything required.
“I cannot fault the head office.”
UAP candidate: 'This is a scandal, we cannot support this'
Separate to his funding concerns, Mr Daoud also took issue with the party’s preferencing on the ‘how-to-vote’ cards in his electorate. Despite running a campaign to "put the Liberals, Labor and Greens last," he said initial voting cards for his seat placed Liberal candidate Fiona Martin third, out of the eight.
In emails seen by The Feed, Mr Daoud suggested to the party Ms Martin should be ranked sixth, just ahead of Labor and the Greens, as promised, calling the initial voting card "a scandal" which he could not support.
"It shows that we keep our promises, it will not upset the conservative voters supporting (the) freedom movement and will give us more votes and give us a better chance to win the seat," he wrote in one email.
"Even Greens voters started to mock us tell us that we are liars in campaigning on core promise to Put Liberals-Labor-Greens last," another reads.
Mr Daoud wrote to the party asking for preferences in his electorate to keep to its election promises and put the major parties last. Credit: Supplied/ The Feed SBS
“[Clive] was telling people ‘don't worry, we will win this election’. He was manufacturing internal polling.”
The party ran candidates in all 151 lower house seats and all available upper house seats.
The Australian Electoral Commission reimburses political parties, candidates and Senate groups for their election spending, provided they receive at least four per cent of first preference votes in an election.
Mr Daoud claims that this is not an option for candidates looking to recoup funds as they were made to sign agreements that they were not entitled to the public funding.
The Feed contacted the United Australia Party for comment.
