Electoral Systems of The Australian States and Territories - Western Australia

Western Australia

The Western Australian Legislative Assembly has 59 members, elected for four-year terms from single-member constituencies under the Alternative Vote form of preferential voting. The voting system is the full preferential system used for the House of Representatives.

From 1986 to 2009, the Western Australian Legislative Council had 34 members elected for four-year terms from six multi-member constituencies known as regions, by STV proportional representation. Four regions elect five members while two regions elect seven members. As in the Assembly, the regions are deliberately malapportioned in favour of country areas. Now, since the Legislative Council, elected on 6 September 2008 and commencing office on 22 May 2009, each region is represented by six MLCs, making a total Council of 36.

A recount method is used to fill mid-term vacancies in the Legislative Council. All ballots from the original election are recounted, with preferences for the vacating member ignored. If a candidate not participating in the recount would be elected, the count is restarted and their preferences are also ignored, until a participating candidate is elected. This is slightly different to the "Countback" method used to fill vacancies in the Tasmanian House of Assembly. However, like the Tasmanian system, legislation provides for the ability to call a by-election if the party the vacating member stood for at the original election does not have any qualifying candidates - for instance, if all of their candidates at the original election were elected.