Karen Chijoff

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Karen Chijoff was an Australian political candidate for the seat in the Division of Lindsay, for the Liberal Party of Australia in the 2007 Australian federal election.

According to her campaign website, Chijoff had worked previously as a computer analyst and programmer working for public and private enterprise. She associated herself closely with the retiring Liberal member for Lindsay Jackie Kelly, claiming to have worked with her for the five years before the election.

On 21 November 2007, three days before the election, her husband Greg Chijoff was caught with four other people (including Jackie Kelly's husband Gary Clark) in the electorate of Lindsay handing out fake pamphlets purporting to be from a non-existent Islamic group, thanking the Labor Party for supporting terrorists^[1]. Jeff Egan, a member of the NSW State Executive and a senior powerbroker within the NSW branch of the Liberal Party was expelled from the party for his part in the Federal Election pamphlet scandal, and Gary Clark and Greg Chijoff were forced to resign from the party.^[2]^[3] Karen Chijoff claimed she knew nothing of the fake flyers. ^[4] On the day of the election, Chaser member Chas Licciardello confronted Karen Chijoff in an Osama bin Laden costume he had used previously during the APEC summit and attempted to pass her copies of the flyer ^[5]. Chijoff lost the seat to Labor's David Bradbury with a massive swing against her.