When the election was done and dusted
I was stunned to see Ricky Muir from the
Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party in
Victoria elected to parliament.
Well the Australian Motoring Enthusiast
Party got themselves organized and hired
a bloke called a “Preferences Whisperer”
This bloke spent a lot of time organizing the
minor party preferences, and played a big
How the hell could this relatively unknown part in Ricky Miur of Victoria being elected.
(in my book at least) get elected.
Well there is a complicated preference
system currently in place that resulted in
Ricky Miur being elected. Basically (very
basically) it goes like this:
•
Let’s say 10 candidates stand for the
Senate in a particular state.
•
They are sorted out 1 to 10 according to how many votes they get.
•
Number 10 with the least amount of
votes is the first to go, but not before they
give their preferences (votes) to another
candidate.
•
So the party that may have been
number 8 on the list gets the votes from
number 10 and then the list is calculated
again. Number 8 with the addition votes
could perhaps move up to say number 5.
•
Number 9 is now about to leave so
they give their votes to someone above
them.
And so it goes on until there is one (or the
number of Senate vacancies) left, and they
get elected.
There are all sorts of other factors, like
quotas amongst others that come into consideration, but that’s about it.
The candidate with the biggest number of
first votes can sometimes lose the election
and a candidate with a few hundred first
votes can actually be elected to the senate.
This is exactly what occurred in Victoria. Why
didn’t this same thing happen with Roothy
in Queensland and Simon in Victoria?
10?
Offroading Online Magazine
candidate. David has a long history of
working for the 4WD, shooters and fishers
and outdoors community. You can check
out their website here http://www.ldp.org.
au
I’m not sure how all this fits together.
”How the hell could this relatively
unknown get elected”
David Leyonhjelm, is the registered officer
of the Outdoors Recreation Party. Check
out their website at http://www.orp.org.au
David Leyonhjelm was also elected to
the Senate as a Liberal Democratic Party
Why would David Leyonhjelm, running
as a candidate for the Liberal Democratic
Party, create another party, the Outdoors
Recreation Party – Stop the Greens? Stuffed
if I know, but check out our next issue where
hopefully David and the LDP will explain all,