Liberals forced to distribute new how-to-vote cards
The Victorian Liberals will have to distribute new statewide how-to-vote cards after it lost a court appeal ordering the party to dump the cards.
The Labor Party had challenged the distribution of the how-to-vote cards after the Liberal candidate for Yan Yean, Meralyn Klein, quit the party after she appeared in an anti-Muslim video.
Ex-Liberal candidate Meralyn Klein in the video.
Labor initially lodged its challenge in the Victorian and Civil Administrative Tribunal, which decided the how-to-vote cards should be deregistered.
These are not the how-to-vote cards for individual seats, but the general guide to all seats given to voters casting their ballot outside their own electorate.
However, the Liberal Party appealed that decision in the Supreme Court and then the Court of Appeal.
But on Thursday, three judges from the Court of Appeal dismissed the Liberals’ appeal, forcing them to distribute new statewide how-to-vote cards on election day.
The decision creates serious difficulties for the Liberal Party, which is expected to replace the now-banned how-to-vote with regional versions that remove Yan Yean from the preference order.
Ms Klein quit as the Liberal candidate last week but has continued campaigning as an independent.
She insisted she was unaware the video by the Australian Liberty Alliance would convey anti-Muslim sentiment when she gave the interview with lead candidate Avi Yemini.
However, Mr Yemini denied that assertion.
Labor MP Danielle Green holds Yan Yean by just 3.7 per cent.
Benjamin is a state political reporter
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