Electoral Act 1993

Elections - By-elections for vacancies in seats of members representing electoral districts

133: No writ to issue pending election petition

You could also call this:

"Don't fill an empty parliament seat until an election dispute is sorted out"

Illustration for Electoral Act 1993

If a member of parliament's seat becomes empty after someone has questioned their election, you cannot fill the empty seat until the issue is resolved. The seat will stay empty until a court makes a decision about the election. If the court decides the member of parliament was not elected fairly, and someone else was, you still cannot fill the seat with a new election until this is sorted out, and it might not happen at all, depending on what the court says about who was really elected, as stated in section 55 or 55A.

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Part 6Elections
By-elections for vacancies in seats of members representing electoral districts

133No writ to issue pending election petition

  1. If after a petition has been presented against the return of any member representing an electoral district his or her seat becomes vacant on any of the grounds mentioned in section 55 or 55A, no writ to fill the vacancy shall be issued until after the petition has been disposed of, and not then if the court determines that that member was not duly elected or returned and that some other person was duly elected or returned.

Notes
  • Section 133: amended, on , by section 6 of the Electoral (Integrity) Amendment Act 2018 (2018 No 39).