The Botany selection

UPDATE: Jami-Lee Ross has won the nomination. It went to a fourth ballot between Jami-Lee Ross and Maggie Barry. Aaron Bhatngar dropped out on the third ballot. Commiserations and thanks to the unsucessful contenders, and congrats to Jami-Lee who will have a lot of focus on him over the next five weeks as he is set to become Parliament’s youngest MP at the age iof 24.

A reader sent in this cartoon they drew, which is timely with the selection tonight.

For those who don’t know how the process works, the selection is done by 60 party members. The Regional Chair chair’s the selection panel and has a casting vote but no deliberative vote (unless he is himself a delegate).

The five candidates will speak for 10 minutes each, The order is random. After each speech the Chairman asks them two questions, which have been provided by the Party President and the Prime Minister. They have (I think) three minutes to answer each question. There is no questioning from the floor but note they have attended three meet the candidates meetings where there is rigorous questioning. And delegates must attend at least one of those meetings, to be eligible to vote. You can’t just be bussed in for the selection meeting, and get a vote.

After the five speeches, the first round of voting starts. It is a secret ballot. To win selection, someone needs to gain 31 votes. If no person wins, then the lowest polling candidate drops out. This is announced to the delegates, and they vote again amongst the remaining four candidates. There are no further speeches. The voting carries on until there is a winner, which might not occur until the 4th ballot.

Normally one or more MPs will provide light relief as guest speakers while each round is counted.

It is highly likely that whomever wins the nomination will become an MP in March.

I’ll update with results once they are known.