THE Senate voting system is likely to come under constitutional challenge and if successful it will favour the Coalition and the Greens.
Under Senate voting rules, voters can do one of two things: tick a party box above the line, or go below the line and number every candidate individually in order. If you vote above the line for a party, your vote is deemed to follow the preferences according to a ticket lodged before the election by the various political parties.
But above-the-line voting may offend the Constitution which requires that MPs be “”directly chosen by the people”. The argument is that if you let the party do the choosing, the MPs are not “”directly chosen by the people”.
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