South Australian Labor and crossbench MPs have gathered in state parliament's lower house amid ongoing calls for the passage of legislation to ensure those affected by COVID-19 can vote in the March state poll.
Speaker Dan Cregan convened the informal sitting of the House of Assembly on Wednesday in the absence of all government MPs.
Mr Cregan had previously called on Premier Steven Marshall to officially recall parliament to pass laws to allow anyone forced into isolation on election day, either as a positive virus case or as a close contact, to vote by phone.
On the basis of current case numbers and modelling, that could amount to up to 20,000 people.
The premier on Tuesday described Mr Cregan's actions and those of the opposition and crossbench MPs as a "stunt" and said it was too late to put a comprehensive phone voting system in place.
But the Speaker told the informal sitting that failing to take action could result in the outcomes in some marginal seats being disputed.
"This issue should have been resolved by consensus. If the government does not wish to extend telephone voting, then extend postal voting," he said.
"Action is required and is required now to address the risk of some people losing their most fundamental right."
Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas told MPs that no one should be denied the right or ability to have a say on the state's future.
"Everybody knew there was going to be an election on March 19," he said.
"Everybody knew for two years that the pandemic presented challenges for the election."
In a statement on Wednesday, the Electoral Commission of South Australia said it was confident it could deliver a COVID-safe election for voters.
"Our key priority is to ensure voters have the best opportunity to vote safely and easily under the current COVID-19 provisions in place," the statement said.
"We are finalising a number of COVID-safe polling options, and we will advise the public of these as soon as they are confirmed with relevant authorities.
"We are continuing to work closely with SA Health and SA police on a plan which will allow COVID-impacted South Australians the opportunity to vote safely, and we expect these plans to be finalised over the coming weeks."
On Tuesday, Mr Marshall said the state had run out of time to put a phone voting system in place.
"That ship has sailed, it should have been done last year," he said.
