"All my uncles are voting for him"

Getting anyone to do anything at 9am on a Sunday is ambitious, but about 30 people showed up at Berala Community Centre last weekend to volunteer for The Muslim Vote’s incipient political campaign in western Sydney.

The organisers at the front of the room — Dr Ziad Basyouny, the recently announced independent candidate for the seat of Watson, and Sheikh Wesam Charkawi — conceded pretty quickly that the original plan to doorknock people at home wouldn’t get a great reception on a Sunday morning. Instead, volunteers were given flyers and split into six teams targeting three train stations — Bankstown, Parramatta and Berala — and three shopping strips — Greenacre, Auburn and Lakemba.