Today’s formal declaration of candidates for the 2020 ACT Legislative Assembly election might be feeling like the calm before the storm, as all 137 candidates are now formally declared ahead of pre-poll voting opening on Monday 28 September.

The ACT Electoral Commission held the formal declaration at The Playhouse Theatre in Civic this morning (24 September) with a limited capacity of 100 people for the sake of social distancing, and also live streamed the event.

The total number of candidates was down four from 2016’s total, but there remains plenty of options for voters across the five electorates.

Of the 137 candidates, 129 were registered to political parties and eight were independents; they now have until close of election day on Saturday 17 October 6pm to convince the electorate to vote for them.

The northside electorate of Ginninderra has the most candidates with 32: including 18 males and 12 females.

This is followed by Murrumbigee, which includes Weston Creek and Woden Valley with their 29 candidates: 19 males and 10 females.

Central Canberra’s Kurrajong electorate has 28 candidates: the only electorate to have more female candidates (16), than males (12).

Gungahlin and surrounds’ Yerrabi electorate has 25 candidates: 18 males and seven females.

And southside’s Brindabella has the least number of candidates to choose from with 23: 15 males and eight females.

The candidates’ names and any political party affiliation were announced, followed by a ‘double randomisation’ draw for each electorate to determine the order in which each party will appear on the ballot paper.

A further draw then took place determining the starting order for the Robson rotations in each column.

Under the Robson rotation system, 60 different versions of the ballot papers will be printed for each electorate.

The order resulting from this draw will be used by Elections ACT when it publishes sample ballot papers.

For more information, visit elections.act.gov.au