A by-election for the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members of the ...

seat of

Mayo Mayo often refers to: * Mayonnaise, often shortened to "mayo" * Mayo Clinic, a medical center in Rochester, Minnesota, United States Mayo may also refer to: Places Antarctica * Mayo Peak, Marie Byrd Land Australia * Division of Mayo, an Aust ...

took place on Saturday 28 July 2018, following the resignation of incumbent

Centre Alliance Centre Alliance, formerly known as the Nick Xenophon Team (NXT), is a centrist political party in Australia based in the state of South Australia. It currently has one representative in the Parliament, Rebekha Sharkie in the House of Represent ...

Rebekha Sharkie Rebekha Carina Sharkie ( Che; born 24 August 1972) is an Australian politician and member of the Centre Alliance party. She is a member of the Australian House of Representatives, representing the Division of Mayo in South Australia. At the 201 ...

.Citizenship drama flares again, with four MPs and one senator on the way out after High Court ruling: ABC 9 May 2018
/ref> In early counting, within an hour of the close of polls, the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

's psephologist

Antony Green Antony John Green (born 2 March 1960) is an Australian psephologist and commentator. He is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's chief election analyst. Early years and background Born in Warrington, Lancashire, in northern England, Gree ...

's electoral computer had predicted Sharkie to retain the electorate with an increased margin. The by-election occurred on the same day as four other by-elections for the House of Representatives, colloquially known as

Super Saturday Super Saturday or Panic Saturday is the last Saturday before Christmas, a major day of revenue for American retailers, marking the end of the shopping season which begins on Black Friday. Super Saturday targets last-minute shoppers. Typically t ...

Background

Due to the High Court ruling against Senator

Katy Gallagher Katherine Ruth Gallagher (born 18 March 1970) is an Australian politician who has been serving as the Minister for Finance, Minister for Women, Minister for the Public Service and Vice-President of the Executive Council in the Albanese Gover ...

on 9 May 2018 as part of the ongoing parliamentary eligibility crisis, Sharkie and three other MPs in the same situation announced their parliamentary resignations later that day, while the

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

incumbent resigned for family reasons. The

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...

announced on 24 May 2018 that he had scheduled the by-elections to occur on 28 July 2018. Popularly labelled "Super Saturday", the occurrence of five simultaneous federal by-elections is unprecedented in Australian political history. The others are: * 2018 Braddon by-election *

2018 Fremantle by-election A by-election for the Australian House of Representatives seat of Fremantle took place on Saturday 28 July 2018, following the resignation of incumbent Labor MP Josh Wilson. In early counting, within 90 minutes of the close of polls, the Austr ...

* 2018 Longman by-election *

2018 Perth by-election A by-election for the Australian House of Representatives seat of Perth took place on Saturday 28 July 2018, following the resignation of incumbent Labor MP Tim Hammond. In early counting, within 90 minutes of the close of polls, the Australian ...

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

candidate

Georgina Downer Georgina Mary Beatrice Downer (born 29 September 1979 in Brussels, Belgium) is an Australian political figure and Director of the Robert Menzies Institute. She has unsuccessfully contested several elections, and is a lawyer and former diplomat. ...

deleted her

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account on 13 June 2018, claiming that

trolls A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human bei ...

had been attacking her with bad language, with counterclaims from Twitter users that she had deleted legitimate policy questions posted to her

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account. Historically, the rural seat of

has been a comfortably safe

seat in

two-party A two-party system is a political party system in which two major political parties consistently dominate the political landscape. At any point in time, one of the two parties typically holds a majority in the legislature and is usually referr ...

terms, though over the past two decades, the Liberals in Mayo had been repeatedly left vulnerable by several strong election results from minor parties and independents. Mayo was represented by Liberal candidate Georgina Downer's father,

Alexander Downer Alexander John Gosse Downer (born 9 September 1951) is an Australian former politician and diplomat who was leader of the Liberal Party from 1994 to 1995, Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1996 to 2007, and High Commissioner to the United King ...

, for the first 24 years of Mayo's 34-year history. Further back, others in the

Downer family The Downer family has played a significant role in the South Australian and Australian political and social sphere since the early days of European settlement. Their earliest ancestors were Mary Ann Downer (1792–1868) and her son Henry Downer ...

including a

Premier of South Australia The premier of South Australia is the head of government in the state of South Australia, Australia. The Government of South Australia follows the Westminster system, with a Parliament of South Australia acting as the legislature. The premier is ...

represented overlapping geographical areas, in the federal seat of Angas and the state seats of Barossa and

Encounter Bay Encounter Bay is a bay in the Australian state of South Australia located on the state's south central coast about south of the state capital of Adelaide. It was named by Matthew Flinders after his encounter on 8 April 1802 with Nicolas Baud ...

Key dates

Key dates in relation to the by-election are: * Friday, 11 May 2018 –

acceptance of resignation * Friday, 15 June 2018 – Issue of

writ In common law, a writ (Anglo-Saxon ''gewrit'', Latin ''breve'') is a formal written order issued by a body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction; in modern usage, this body is generally a court. Warrants, prerogative writs, subpoenas, a ...

* Friday, 22 June 2018 – Close of

electoral roll An electoral roll (variously called an electoral register, voters roll, poll book or other description) is a compilation that lists persons who are entitled to vote for particular elections in a particular jurisdiction. The list is usually broke ...

s (8pm) * Thursday, 5 July 2018 – Close of nominations (12 noon) * Friday, 6 July 2018 – Declaration of nominations (12 noon) * Tuesday, 10 July 2018 – Start of

early voting Early voting, also called advance polling or pre-poll voting, is a convenience voting process by which voters in a public election can vote before a scheduled election day. Early voting can take place remotely, such as via postal voting, or in ...

* Saturday, 28 July 2018 –

Polling day Election day or polling day is the day on which general elections are held. In many countries, general elections are always held on a Saturday or Sunday, to enable as many voters as possible to participate; while in other countries elections ar ...

(8am to 6pm) * Friday, 10 August 2018 – Last day for receipt of

postal votes Postal voting is voting in an election where ballot papers are distributed to electors (and typically returned) by post, in contrast to electors voting in person at a polling station or electronically via an electronic voting system. In an ele ...

* Sunday, 23 September 2018 – Last day for return of writs

Candidates

The

Family First Party The Family First Party was a Conservatism in Australia, conservative political party in Australia which existed from 2002 to 2017. It was founded in South Australia where it enjoyed its greatest electoral support. Since the demise of the Austral ...

(now the

Australian Conservatives The Australian Conservatives was formed in July 2016 as a conservative political activist group in Australia and as a political party in February 2017. It was led by Cory Bernardi, who had been elected to the Senate for the Liberal Party, but ...

) contested Mayo at the last election on 4.6% (−2.5%) but declined to contest the by-election.Sharkie "doing a good job", says Labor's Mayo hopeful: InDaily 7 June 2018
/ref>

Polling

Results

References

External links

2018 Mayo by-election website: Australian Electoral Commission2018 Mayo by-election guide: Antony Green ABC2018 Mayo by-election guide: The Tally RoomBy-elections aplenty: The Poll Bludger 10 May 2018Super Saturday July 28: The Poll Bludger 24 May 2018
{{2018 in Australia 2018 elections in Australia South Australian federal by-elections