Of course the vote counting begins, with results rolling in and reported after 7 pm Saturday.
If it is clear who the Government will be on election night, the formation of the Government and the appointment of Ministers may occur within a few days.
More likely, would-be coalition partners will begin Sunday to schedule their tete a tete’s.
Official results are declared on 3 November.
But given the expected ‘intensity’ of coalition negotiations, the key trigger date to watch is 9 November: the last day for the ‘return of the writ’.
After declaring the result, and when satisfied that no application is to be made for a judicial recount, or after any recount has taken place, the Electoral Commissioner delivers the writ to the Clerk of the House. Effectively this is a certificate of election, proving the right of membership to the House of Representatives.
Following the return of the writ, the Governor-General issues a proclamation summoning Parliament to meet within six weeks. Within those six weeks, the first meeting of the new Parliament must take place.
[Note: a by-election that must take place in Port Waikato due to death of one of the candidates in that electorate could throw a spanner in this calendar if the national results produce a 60-60 split in Parliament. The result of this by-election would become rather important!]
Meantime, the current Government serves as caretaker, capable of responding at full scale to a major earthquake or invasion by Australia, but unable to enact policy.
As that six week deadline approaches (18 December), with no claim to govern yet at her door, Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro can appoint a mediator to assist.
But there’s no way to force closure, so at that point it gets sordid.
Failure to cobble together a majority is probably a curse none of the involved parties would survive! It would mean a new election early next year, at a cost of some $150 million, and a very grumpy and disillusioned voting public.
Various ‘experts’ have advised Baybuzz on this sequence of events, but none will take public credit.
I’ll continue to say it – MMP is a rort – useless MP’s can continue on in Parliament thanks to the rip off known as “The List”. Our best option was, and still is, STV, but too many people believed the publicity that it was all too hard to work out how to vote. As a result we have a bunch of professional politicians holding the country to ransom every electorate cycle while they sort out their respective spheres of influence. I now take little interest in politics as it’s just too much like a closed shop full of huge egos and no real thought about the world as it really is.
I agree. I remember the media pushing MMP but there were other options they didn’t really cover as much. It was social conditioning and political manipulation, and it’s still happening today with the media not covering the smaller parties so we’re not fully informed. We need an unbiased media to do their job, and not be the control mechanism of the globalists.