Every campaign will have exploding candidates but this year has been particularly spectacular.
Disendorsements have occurred over comments that are homophobic, Islamophobic, sexist and racist. The most novel example surely goes to Corio Liberal candidate Murray Angus, who was disendorsed, partly for calling his Labor opponent a “good bloke”.
In spite of everyone’s high court adventures over dual citizenship in 2017, seven candidates have stepped down due to issues around citizenship.
The critical date for understanding how this will play out at the ballot box was 23 April. This was the day nominations closed and candidates were declared. Those who are disendorsed after that date will still be on the ballot paper in affected seats.
Since the cut off, the Liberal party has disendorsed three lower house candidates (Lyons, Isaac and Wills) while Labor has disendorsed one Senate and one lower house candidate and One Nation has disendorsed one Senate candidate. Lyons is the only one of those lower house seats where the Coalition has a National candidate as an alternative to disendorsed Liberal, Jessica Whelan.
Labor’s lower house disendorsed candidate, Luke Creasey, was running in the seat of Melbourne, which is currently held by the Greens’ Adam Bandt.
All of the Liberals’ lower house candidates disendorsed after the cut-off date are in marginal Labor seats, which means the Liberals will go to those electorates with no official candidate.
So here’s the thing: the deadline for candidate nominations has closed, the ballot papers are printed and the pre-polling voting has begun.
If a candidate is disendorsed, can they still run?
The removal of a party endorsement makes no difference to their standing as a candidate in the eyes of Australian law.
No changes can be made to the list of candidates after the close of nominations at a federal election, according to the Electoral Act.
Will the disendorsed candidate’s name still appear on the ballot paper?
Yes. The name of any candidate who resigns or is disendorsed by a political party will remain on the ballot paper, along with the name of the party that endorsed their nomination.
“From a process point of view, the ballot papers are the same, voting rules stay the same, and counting the votes stays the same,” Phil Diak of the Australian Electoral Commission said.
This is why parties try to resist disendorsement because they cannot run another candidate in the seat after nominations have closed.
Is a disendorsed candidate able to enter parliament if they win enough votes?
Yes. The most famous case of this was Pauline Hanson, circa 1996. She was disendorsed by the Liberal party under John Howard after comments regarding government entitlements for Indigenous Australians. She went on to win the seat of Oxley.