BY LISA MACDONALD
SYDNEY — On February 22, the NSW Socialist Alliance surmounted the final legal barrier to having its name printed next to its candidates on ballot papers in the 2003 state elections. The barriers were erected by the NSW parliament in 1999, to prevent small parties from having an identifiable voice in NSW elections.
The alliance's NSW electoral registration is a big victory for the left. Had it not been achieved, the electoral field would be left to the major parties, the Greens and small right-wing parties which, because they are backed by wealthy interest groups, are able to get registration with relative ease.
Since the 1999 legislation was passed, parties must have been registered for a year before being able to run in a state election. This meant that parties had to be registered before March 4 to run in 2003.
According to the NSW State Electoral Office, 15 parties attempted to get registration for the 2003 election. SEO staff have indicated that very few of those were likely to succeed.
The Socialist Alliance appears to be the only left party to get registered. The Progressive Labour Party and the Communist Party of Australia recently abandoned their attempts, unable to meet the harsh criteria.
The Socialist Alliance managed to beat the odds. But no political group should have to go through what the alliance did to obtain electoral registration.
The first hurdle was an application fee of $2000.
The second hurdle was the presentation to the SEO of individually signed membership forms from 750 alliance members. Each of these members had to be correctly enrolled in NSW at the time the electoral office checked their membership. Members who are not citizens or are under 18 do not count for this process.
If an enrolled member moved address after joining, they had to fill in a new membership form and that had to be re-submitted to the SEO. This process was made more difficult by the significant time delay in SEO processing of change of address forms — resulting in many people being unsure of where they were registered.
All these measures penalise parties which, like the Socialist Alliance, have a high proportion of migrants, youth and tenants (who tend to move more frequently) as members. Although the Socialist Alliance submitted more than 930 forms to the SEO, less than 760 were accepted.
The third hurdle was the SEO's confirmation process. The office sent letters to 300 randomly selected members from the accepted list. Members who received a letter had to sign a form confirming their membership, and return it in a provided reply paid envelope. Faxed forms were not accepted by the electoral office. To be counted, respondents could not be a member of another party which had, or was seeking, registration.
Two hundred and twenty five members (75% of those who received letters) had to return the form, correctly filled out, in order for the alliance to be registered.
If a member's letter was returned to the SEO unopened or unsigned their name was deducted from the 750 registered members. During the six weeks that the alliance's application was being processed, more than 15 members were struck off the original list of 750, and new signed membership forms had to be immediately collected, lodged and approved by the SEO.
Holidays, house-moving, letter-box insecurity and the unreliability of housemates and Australia Post significantly reduce the proportion of members likely to receive a letter. The letters are sent to the members' residential (rather than postal) address. They are not sent by registered mail.
On February 21, the SEO confirmed that 225 forms had to be returned by February 28. The letters sent to members, however, included no due date for return of the form.
The SEO would not tell the alliance which members had been sent a letter. To ensure that 225 forms were returned on time, Socialist Alliance activists had to ring and/or mail all 930 members within a few weeks and explain the situation — an expensive and extremely time consuming exercise.
On February 22 the 225th form was accepted by the SEO.
Having devoted hundreds of hours (and litres of sweat) to jumping these hurdles, the Socialist Alliance will continue to campaign against these laws, which were designed by the established parties.
That Socialist Alliance has forced its way onto "their" turf is a testament to its organisational effectiveness, political determination and refusal to be cowed — not to the "reasonableness" of the registration laws.
Getting rid of these laws will not result in a level playing field — those who control the media, have access to money and can use the state to repress emerging political forces will continue to dominate electoral politics. But the abolition of any laws which limit people's ability to use elections to present and test public support for their ideas can only advance democratic rights.
Our thanks and congratulations to all those Socialist Alliance activists in NSW who worked so hard to ensure that these laws were dealt their first blow.
[Lisa Macdonald was the Socialist Alliance candidate for Reid in the last federal election, and is the Sydney district secretary of the Democratic Socialist Party.]
From Green Left Weekly, February 27, 2002.
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