AEC Orders Recount for WA Senate

The Australian Electoral Commission has ordered a recount of votes for the WA Senate race following a series of appeals against the result.

The initial appeal for a recount lodged by Senator Scott Ludlum from The Greens and Australian Sports Party candidate Wayne Dropulich were turned down by Peter Kramer the Australian Electoral Officer for Western Australia.

Now an appeal to Electoral Commissioner Ed Killesteyn has resulted in an order for a recount of those votes that were ‘above the line’ in last month’s federal election.

The final result of the senate election was a close call that came down to just a handful of votes in the ‘below the line’ voting option where voters numbered each individual candidate.

The initial results on election night looked as if the Greens incumbent Senator Scott Ludlum would be returned and that the fledgling Australian Sports Party would pick up their first seat in the parliament.

As counting continued the results for the final two of six senate places changed with Labor Senator Louise Pratt holding on to her seat and Zhenya ‘Dio’ Wang from the new Palmer United Party taking the last two spots over Mr Ludlum and Mr Dropulich.

Mr Killesteyn said the recount was in the best interests of the candidates.

“”I have concluded that the recount will be in the best interest of all candidates who contested the 2013 WA Senate election, and in the overall interest of the WA electorate’s confidence in the outcome,” Mr Killesteyn.

The recount will involve over 96% of votes, or approximately 1.25 million of the 1.3 million formal votes. The recount will additionally re-examine informal votes.

OIP Staff, Image: Stock Image YayMicro|  bilderbox