New South Wales Legislative Council elections 2003

In this paper Antony Green summarises results for the election of 21 members to the New South Wales Legislative Council. The 2003 election was the first conducted under changes to the electoral system that made it virtually impossible for parties to engage in preference deals. While the new voting system retained the \u27above the line\u27 or group voting option, groups had to nominate full lists of 15 or more candidates to have access to a group voting square. As a consequence, only 15 groups nominated in 2003 compared to 80 at the last election. But every group nominated 15 or more candidate, compared to just three groups in 1999. So while the number of groups fell, producing a much more manageable ballot paper, the number of candidates rose from 264 to 284