Angry Victorians and a rogue former Labor MP are among those registering political parties for the upcoming state election.
The Victorian Electoral Commission on Thursday announced it had received five new applications for registration by parties, including one by the New Democrats, which lists the upper house MP Kaushaliya Vaghela as its secretary.
The Angry Victorians party, the Australian Democrats, the Indigenous-Aboriginal Party of Australia and the Independence party, which is led by the upper house MP Catherine Cumming, also applied for registration.
Concerns have been raised about the prospect of micro-parties swapping preferences, given reforms to the state’s upper house voting system were shelved by the Andrews government until after the election.
Victoria is the only jurisdiction in Australia that still uses the group voting system, which allows voters to choose just one party above the line on their ballot, after which their preferences are directed according to agreements between parties.
Voters can vote below the line – but less than 9% did so at the 2018 state election.
There will be a large field of micro-parties contesting the election, including the Companions and Pets party, The Coalition For Freedom Prosperity Health, the Family Matters Australia party, Family First Victoria, Legalise Cannabis Victoria and the Victorians party, which was born out of frustration with Covid lockdowns.
To be eligible for registration, a party must have at least 500 members who are on the Victorian electoral roll and are not members of another registered political party, among other requirements.
Vaghela, the secretary of the New Democrats, was expelled from the Labor party earlier this year after she broke party rules and crossed the floor of parliament to vote in favour of a motion put forward by the former minister Adem Somyurek.
She had been part of a group of MPs, factionally aligned with Somyurek, who had been dumped as the Labor party’s endorsed candidates last year ahead of the November election.
An anti-corruption inquiry recently found Somyurek’s moderate faction misused public funds for political purposes. He quit the Labor party in 2020 before it moved to expel him when the allegations were first made public.
Another upper house MP, Bernie Finn, is also running for the Democratic Labour Party after he was expelled from the Liberal party.
ABC’s election analyst, Antony Green, previously told Guardian Australia Victoria’s group voting system was an “absolute abrogation of democracy”, given candidates can win a seat thanks to preference whisperers, who are paid to help candidates win despite receiving a small proportion of first-preference votes.
“It is inconceivable, it is absolutely impossible for some of these parties elected under group voting tickets to get elected under their own steam,” he said.
Green predicted the 2022 upper house ballot paper would be doubled decked due to the number of parties likely to register.
The premier, Daniel Andrews, denied group voting tickets were undemocratic.
“I wouldn’t described it in those terms. Candidates run, they’ll all put forward agendas. I think the people of Victoria are a good deal smarter than what some people give them credit for and they’ll make their judgments about who they want to vote for,” he told reporters on Thursday.
Andrews said the government worked respectfully with a large crossbench to pass legislation.
“I’m not here today to make any announcements about electoral laws. I will be very clear with you, my focus is on hospital patients not on political preferences.”
Andrews said he had not spoken to Vaghela since she was expelled from the Labor party.
It is likely the VEC will announce the registration of further political parties in the coming weeks. The deadline to apply was 29 July.
