Victorian Labor candidate's political poster defaced with niqab

The 2019 federal election campaign turned ugly in Melbourne, with one Victorian Labor candidate becoming a target of “Islamophobia”.

Campaign posters of Labor candidate Shireen Morris have been defaced overnight, to depict the candidate for the electorate of Deakin, in Melbourne’s outer east, wearing a niqab.

Ms Morris has accused other candidates of vandalising her advertisements to “secure votes”.

"Using Islamophobia to try a secure votes... disgraceful," she Tweeted with images of the vandalised posters early on Saturday morning.

Many social media users responded in support of the Deakin candidate, calling the vandalism “disgusting”.

Pictures of several defaced posters throughout the electorate have been shared to social media.

Ms Morris is challenging Liberal incumbent Michael Sukkar for the now marginal seat.

The attack comes as campaign posters, printed in Mandarin, appeared across several Melbourne electorates, instructing Chinese-speaking people on the ‘correct’ way to vote was by referencing the Liberals.

“Chisholm Liberals have made posters in Chinese to look like AEC information that translates to ‘the correct way to vote is to put a number 1 next to the Liberals and number every other box’,” Victorian Trades Hall secretary Luke Hilakari tweeted.

The ugly behaviour began when an irate man assaulted a Liberal volunteer with a corkscrew at a polling station in Tony Abbott's Sydney electorate on the eve of the federal election.

In Sydney's southwest, a man – believed to be a United Australia Party volunteer – has been fined for allegedly exposing himself at a polling booth.

• Volunteer 'stabbed with corkscrew' while putting up Abbott posters at Sydney school

• Why you're given pencils at polling booths instead of pens

• 'Disgraceful': Outrage over 'deceptive' Liberal signs at polling booths

• Federal Election 2019: How does preferential voting work?

• Federal Election 2019: The 'donkey votes' made in protest that will still count

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