Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER ACT 2005 - SCHEDULE 2A

Note:   See section   143E.

1   Absolute majority required for election

    A candidate needs an absolute majority of votes to be elected.

2   Candidate with absolute majority of first preference votes elected

    A candidate who receives an absolute majority of first preference votes is elected.

3   Distribution of preferences

  (1)   If there is no candidate who receives an absolute majority of first preference votes, the candidate who has received the fewest first preference votes must be excluded, and each of that candidate's ballot papers must be transferred to the unexcluded candidate for whom the next available preference is expressed.

  (2)   If there is then no candidate who has an absolute majority of votes, the process of excluding the candidate who has the fewest votes, and transferring that candidate's ballot papers to the unexcluded candidates for whom the next available preferences are expressed, must be repeated as often as necessary until one candidate receives an absolute majority of votes.

  (3)   A candidate who receives an absolute majority of votes at any stage of the process described in this clause is elected.

  (4)   Without limiting the generality of section   143G, the rules made by the Minister under that section may include provisions about:

  (a)   the determination of an absolute majority of votes; and

  (b)   the method of choosing between 2 or more candidates, each of whom has the same number of votes, in order to work out which candidate to exclude; and

  (c)   determining when a ballot paper is exhausted.