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I think you may have a case for having the election declared invalid and the status quo of the committee retained until such times as there is a valid election.
The Fair Trading website on strata meetings says: “An election cannot involve a pre-meeting electronic vote.”
There are other conditions attached to elections, including that the names of the candidates for whom each owner is voting must be written on a blank sheet of paper. The reason for that is to avoid incumbents giving themselves prominence on a voting paper.
The logistics of applying election rules about nominations and voting processes to an electronic meeting are mind-boggling, which probably explains why you can’t have an election online, by mail or by email.
It would seem to me that the active members of the committee have falsely created a situation where an election was required (by persuading owners to reduce the number of seats) then conducted an unnecessary and possibly invalid election to achieve their aims.
The strata manager may have gone along with this as they will often go with the power group in a strata scheme because that secures their contracts for the future.
I think you might well get a result at Fair Trading, although you may have to push this to the Tribunal to have the election rescinded.
One other thought, with the power group on the committee having persuaded everyone to reduce the size of the committee on an invalid vote, what are the chances that if you eventually get to have a proper election, they won’t just do the same. Or did this require a blind-side to be effective?
FYI: You would probably raise the issue with Fair Trading under Section 24 of the Act which says:
(1) The Tribunal may, on application by an owner or first mortgagee of a lot in a strata scheme, make an order invalidating any resolution of, or election held by, the persons present at a meeting of the owners corporation if the Tribunal considers that the provisions of this Act or the regulations have not been complied with in relation to the meeting.
Good luck.