Twelve candidates have nominated to contest the 2015 Canning federal by-election, the AEC announced today.
The Liberal Democrats candidate Connor Whittle has drawn a spot on the ballot paper above Liberal Andrew Hastie, opening the possibility the candidates may be confused.
In 2013, a candidate for the Liberal Democrats, who are unrelated to the Liberal Party, was elected to the Senate in New South Wales.
Senior Liberals at the time attributed this to the Liberal Democrats drawing a higher position on the ballot paper, leading to confusion among voters as to which candidate stood for the Liberal Party.
Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm conceded this week the party's position on the ballot paper would be crucial.
"Over the past 40 years the DLP [Democratic Labour Party] has always done better when they're ahead of Labor [on the ballot paper] and the same sort of phenomenon will apply to us in Canning," he said.
Other candidates for the byelection include those for the Pirate Party, the Australian Defence Veterans Party, Family First and the Australian Christians.
The candidate nominations, in ballot paper order, that were officially declared at noon are:
1
SHARMA Vimal Kumar
Palmer United Party
2
WHITTLE Connor
Liberal Democrats
3
ALLEN Michelle
Pirate Party
4
SMITH Greg
Australian Defence Veterans Party
5
LOVE Katrina
Animal Justice Party
6
HASTIE Andrew
Liberal
7
VAN LIESHOUT Teresa
Independent
8
KEOGH Matt
Australian Labor Party
9
RAULAND Vanessa
The Greens (WA)
10
McCOURT Jim
Family First Party
11
VAN BURGEL Jamie
Australian Christians
12
SMITH Angela
Sustainable Population Party