Victoria Labor plans to select candidates a month before election — ABC News Australia

The Labor Party in the Australian state of Victoria plans to finalize its candidates for the upper house of parliament only a month before the November 28 election. The party currently holds 15 seats in the 40-member Legislative Council, but is preparing for significant losses due to unfavorable polling results, ABC News Australia reports.

Within the party, it is expected that almost all candidates in second positions on electoral tickets will fail to enter parliament. Under this scenario, Labor representation in the upper house would fall from 15 to nine members.

Candidate selection schedule

According to a tentative schedule that is to be approved by the party’s administrative committee, the national executive body is to determine candidates for positions currently held by Labor members on October 21. Decisions on the remaining seats are to be made a week later — a month before the vote and several days before the government enters a caretaker period ahead of the election.

Some members of parliament have privately complained that they are not being informed about the progress of the selection process, leaving them unsure whether to invest resources in their own campaigns. Negotiations between factional groups over protecting and prioritizing members in potentially losing positions have delayed the process.

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Agreement concerning Erdogan

Senior ministers Ingrid Stitt and Enver Erdogan currently hold second positions in their regions. According to ABC, an informal agreement provides for Erdogan to be moved to the first, safer position in Eastern Victoria, which includes Gippsland.

The current member for the region, Tom McIntosh, is instead expected to move to the second position in the Northern Metropolitan Region. Labor hopes to retain two seats there, although this position is considered less secure than his current first place in Eastern Victoria.

Labor’s lower-house candidate in the Gippsland East electorate, Sonny Stevens, launched a petition in August calling for McIntosh to remain in the first position. It was signed by 300 party members. Stevens said party members were disappointed with the procedure, which, in their view, does not reward effort.