Australian Electoral Commissioner apologises over WA Senate vote and says he expects legal challenge

Updated 20 minutes ago

The Australian Electoral Commissioner has apologised “unreservedly” to Western Australian voters for the state’s botched Senate election.

Commissioner Ed Killesteyn says he has no choice but to announce the result of the recount today, despite the near-certainty that it will be the subject of an immediate legal challenge by Labor and Clive Palmer.

The recount – triggered when the original vote resulted in just a 14-vote margin – descended into farce last week when the Australian Electoral Commission confirmed that nearly 1,400 ballot papers had gone missing.

Mr Killesteyn says the gravity of the situation is not lost on him.

 

“Nearly 1,400 Western Australian electors have had their Senate [votes] disenfranchised and I apologise unreservedly to those electors,” he told Radio National this morning.

“This is really now a matter that has to be dealt with in the courts.

 

“I’m obligated to declare the result, irrespective of the fact that these ballots are missing. Legally, I just have no other choice.”

Today’s announcement will give the final two Senate spots to the Greens’ Scott Ludlam and the Australian Sports Party’s Wayne Dropulich, with Labor’s Louise Pratt and the Palmer United Party’s (PUP) Dio Wang missing out.

The Palmer United Party will challenge the recount, as will Labor’s Senator Pratt.

This morning Mr Killesteyn dismissed claims by PUP leader Clive Palmer that the counting process had been corrupt, saying he had absolute “confidence” in his officers and their integrity.

Constitutional expert Professor Anne Twomey says the AEC itself is likely to petition the High Court to get any re-run of the ballot completed before next July.

 

“If it has doubts about the outcome, even if those doubts arise from errors that seem to have been made within the Commission perhaps in relation to these votes going missing, well it needs to be back on the front foot ensuring confidence in the system,” she said.

“I think that’s one of the reasons it would take this sort of action.”

Professor Twomey says a fresh election could be open to new candidates.

“Unless the court finds some kind of over-riding requirement that this being a replacement election for the earlier one you need to have the same candidates, etc, unless it did that … it would be effectively open slather and anyone could nominate,” she said.

The new Senate does not sit until July next year, so any new election could take place in February or March next year.

At the weekend, Federal Infrastructure Minister Warren Truss said this new election should be held sooner rather than later.

Any new campaign in Western Australia would be an interesting contest between newly endorsed Prime Minister Tony Abbott and newly elected Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.

 

Topics: government-and-politics, elections, wa

First posted 2 hours 30 minutes ago