Australia
In the 1970s J.J. McRoach ran for parliament as candidate for the Australian Marijuana Party. He had an advertising campaign funded by an anonymous dealer. His party came fourth in the elections. In 1986 Nick Brash ran for the “Marijuana Party” for the Kiama NSW by-election against ALP heavy-weight Bob “Bobo” Harrison. Then in 1987 Nick Brash ran in the Heathcote NSW by-election with 13 other candidates including the infamous Rex “Buckets” Jackson. This campaign was partly funded by the late John Marsden, solicitor and outspoken civil libertarian. In the 1988 NSW State Election he joined Macciza Macpherson in running for the Legislative Council Soon after, the electoral laws were changed requiring all political parties to prove a membership of 500 enrolled voters, an impossible task for the Marijuana Party. The independent HEMP Legalise Marijuana party continues to run in the upper house in South Australian legislative elections, with their best result being in 1997 when they received 1.7% of the vote, beating relatively popular parties such as the SA Greens and the SA branch of the National Party of Australia. The Party was founded in 1993 and has a constitution, which describes an organisation with the aim of endorsing candidates to contest elections to the Federal Parliament of Australia.
More recently the HEMP Party (Help End Marijuana Prohibition) was first registered in 2000, and then de-registered in 2006 under Schedule 3 of the Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Electoral Integrity and Other Measures) Act 2006. During that time candidates stood in state and federal elections. Since that time it has been difficult to prove a membership of 500, as members contacted by the AEC (Australian Electoral Commission) sometimes disavowed membership, or had changed address without notifying the Party or the AEC.
Several applications later the AEC has assessed the party as meeting the test of being a political party under s4 of the Electoral Act. On 17 June 2010 the delegate determined that the party's application had passed its initial consideration for registration and the application was advertised for public objection on 23 June 2010. The issue of writs on 19 July 2010 for the federal elections meant that no further action could be taken on this application until the final return of all outstanding writs on 17 September 2010. No objections to the registration of the HEMP Party were received. The AEC assessed the party's application against the technical requirements in s126(2) of the Electoral Act. The application meets the technical requirements in s126(2). The delegate of the Australian Electoral Commission determined that the HEMP Party should therefore be registered under the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918.
Read more about this topic: Cannabis Political Parties
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