Saturday 15 March 2014

Record 77 candidates to contest re-run of Western Australian Senate election

Extract from The Guardian website:

Voters head back to polls to choose six senators out of a long list including of contenders including euthanasia advocate Dr Philip Nitschke and candidates for Save Our ABC and WikiLeaks
  • Australian Associated Press
A record number of candidates have nominated for Western Australia’s Senate election re-run with 77 candidates in the running, however, the Australian Electoral Commission says the number was slightly lower than the 100 candidates it expected would nominate by the deadline at noon on Thursday.
Some of the minor parties represented include the Socialist Alliance, Rise Up Australia, the Sex party, the Shooters and Fishers, the Animal Justice party, the Outdoor Recreation party and the Smokers Rights party.
Euthanasia advocate Dr Philip Nitschke is also standing, as are former ABC Perth personalities Russell Woolf and Verity James, who intend to run on a Save Our ABC ticket.
Immediately after the nomination, the draw for the order on the ballot paper was conducted, complete with a bingo hall-style tombola.
The election is being repeated after 1,370 Senate ballots went missing during a recount after the September federal election.
The election on April 5 will be the fourth time that WA voters have gone to the polls since the state election in March 2013.
There will be 28,000 more voters enrolled to vote than the original poll last September, the AEC says.
After enrolments closed last Friday, 1,480,303 West Australians are eligible for the April ballot.
The number one position on the lengthy ballot paper went to the Wikileaks Party, which changed its candidates in the hour before nominations closed after its number one candidate, Gerry Georgatos, withdrew for personal reasons.
With a list of 33 nominated parties, and two independent candidates, Labor will appear in the sixth column of the ballot, the Liberals will be placed 18th, the Greens 27th and the Palmer United Party 16th.
Last place for the parties on the ballot went to the Outdoor Recreation Party (Stop the Greens).

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